Thursday, May 31, 2007

Let's Laugh

Who doesn't like to laugh?

I found some funny pictures I wanted to share....enjoy!

Say again?


Keeping off this grass should be a peice of cake!


Speed....I am speed!




What about spelling?




*********************** So did this get messed up because the guy was up all night doing "arithetic" or was he up all night gambling?
*
Enough said.





I'm confused...

SOTP! No Enrty!! Arithetic beyond this point!




What did he do? Was he drinking shakes in public again?

Make up your mind!


Um...uh...well...um...er...



How would one write for help if one was illiterate?

Good job!!

Looks like a show down between FedEx and UPS. I think UPS won.




Dang...sounds like a fun wedding.








Don't drink and make signs!




Aw, come one! Let me touch just one!

This is quite the dilemma.








Cows fall off the cliff and hit cars so often, that there is a permanent sign made to warn travellers. Wow.
















So do I stop? Or not?






















Yes, prompt attention would be given most anywhere when you drop your pants.










Sounds like a good deal doesn't it? Wait until they go to college and you're forking out the dough for tuition!

















Thursday, May 24, 2007

Snow!

Today is May 24th. This is what I woke up to this morning....



...You should feel sorry for me.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Installing Toviel

The other day Cris was working on the computer while Toviel was playing quietly and contently....excuse me - he was playing loudly, but contently...at Cris' feet.

Suddenly, a window popped up on the computer. It said "Found new hardware" and was attempting to install this new-found hardware.

Cris was momentarily confused, wondering to himself what the computer had found and what it was trying to install. Looking around, he saw Toviel sucking on the end of the cable that connects our camera to our computer.

Our computer was trying to install our son. Hm.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A Kid With A Dream

I have recently learned about a boy named Shane who is turning 8 at the end of this month.
He is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

His wish for his birthday is to receive the world record of birthday cards.
What an easy-squeezy dream to fulfill if we all pitch in.
Here are the details:

Friday, May 11, 2007

The Rewards

Today I was kneeling on the ground when Elijah came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my neck and buried his head into my hair.
Then he said, "I love you mommy."

Then he took off running, continuing his hunt for dinosaurs.

That moment is forever embedded in my brain.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Big, Big Spenders (A Load of Freebies!)

You know Spring is here when Garage Sales start popping up.

Today we went Garage Sale-ing. We went to a big community association garage sale, a big church garage sale, and a couple single-family garage sales.

We bought some barbeque tools in almost-new-condition, a little toy car, a monster truck, a "Princess House" handblown crystal oil lamp (never used, still in the box), a junior sized hockey stick, 2 styrofoam gliders in their packages, "The Worst Case Scenerio Survival Game", and about 60 back-packs and bags. Yes, I did say 60.

All told, we spent $2.00.

I don't know how we got all that stuff for $2.00.

The back-packs and bags were free. Nobody buys those things at garage sales. And 2 of the garage sales were just coming to a close and people were talking about throwing them in the dumpster. Cris said he would take as many as he could fit in the car, and the response of the garage sale makers was one of excitement and glee. "Yes! Yes! Take them! Take them all!" He recycles bags and back-packs. He takes all the clips and strapping off of them and uses them to make paintball gear...

He has been sewing these (and many other) custom drop-down leg holsters for paintball guns along with other paintball gear. A couple guys are even after him to make them a custom bag for their paintball guns and gear. Anyways, the clips and strapping are quite expensive to buy from a store, but they are free if you rob them from free back-packs.

We spent more money on 2 slurpees today than we did on a car load of garage sale gems!

Then we went out for supper since we were in Calgary and beginning to get that grumpy I-don't-care-about-anything-I'm-just-so-hungry-that-I-can't-think-and-I'm-getting-awfully-mad sort of hunger (I get that honestly from my dad).

While we were eating our meal, I said to Cris, "Wouldn't that be cool if our waiter came by and said 'Today we are having a special promotion and dessert is included with your meal at no extra charge.'?"
Literally 10 seconds later, our waiter came by to ask if everything was okay. It was at that exact second that Cris noticed one of his tomato slices still had the sticker on it. So he pointed it out to the waiter who responded very apologetically with a hint shock, disgust, and embarrasment. He left with the tomato and the manager came by about 2 minutes later and offered us a free dessert because Cris had a sticker on his tomato slice.

So we did get a free dessert. And boy oh boy was it ever so good. *smack*

It was a good day for freebies today.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Social Activism

So....
I go to a postpartum depression group once a week - Mondays to be exact.
A couple Monday's ago was a hard day for me. Not because I was having difficulty, but because there was a new woman there, and her story was overwhelming.

This is how it goes:
She and her husband moved to Canada from the Netherlands in December 2006. She was 6 months pregnant at the time. Her husband was not legally allowed to work, but she was, so she went to work right away. She worked 60 hours a week for 6 weeks, then her daughter was born prematurely.
She had a horrible birth experience.
Her husband will be considered for a working visa later this year. First he has to re-write his English test in June. Then they have to wait 3-6 months (or more knowing our government) to get approved before he can start looking for a job.
So, since this woman can work and her hubby can't, she has gone back to work already. Her daughter is only 9 weeks old.
This woman also has 2 masters degrees, but of course she has to get a low-paying job because she is an immigrant and can't get a job in her field of expertise yet. So she is working at a Co-op grocery store.
Their savings are running out and will be gone in 2 months. Her husband found the place they are currently living in. The rent is way to expensive for them. Her husband will not look for a cheaper place to live, so now this woman has to begin the search because practically speaking they cannot live where they are any longer.

Listening to her speak caused me to feel totally overwhelmed. How do you adjust to all that? All at once? No wonder this woman is suffering from depression. Her life circumstances suck right now! And, she has a brand new daughter who she can't really bond with.

Another woman got up and brought ME some tissue as this woman was telling her story.

At the end of the group, we have to pick one task to accomplish during the week. This task must be only for ourselves, "self-care" they call it. This is because women with postpartum depression suck at taking care of themselves. This woman said she couldn't think of anything. The only thing she could think of, she couldn't do. She likes to watch the TV series "The Gilmore Girls" but she can't because it is on Tuesday nights and she has to work that night. And she has no VCR to record it.

I can't get her out of my head. And I don't even know her name. I mean, she said her name, but it was some sort of strange viking, Netherlands name that I didn't understand, probably can't pronounce, and of course can't remember.

I came home and told Cris about her. He said we should have them over for supper and give them a break from the regular grind of day-to-day living. But, of course there is a rule in the group that you can't be friends while you are in the group, the reason being that nothing brings a depressed person down faster than another depressed person.

So, feeling like I wanted to help, I set out to find this woman a VCR so she could do something for herself that she enjoyed. I don't really know anyone from our church, and I felt unsure of who to ask. I ended up placing a want ad for a VCR on Kijiji Calgary telling a tiny bit of this woman's situation. I got 3 responses back! I was actually surprised! The first response was from someone who had a VCR to give to me for free. The second response was from someone who wanted to give this woman some gently used baby girl clothes. The third response was from someone who could probably find a VCR, wanted to donate some baby girl clothes, and was going to throw in a gift card from a grocery store!
So I coordinated picking these items up last weekend and brought them with me to my postpartum group on Monday.

I spoke to the group leader and told her what I wanted to do, but of course that I wanted to do it anonymously. I was nervous that she would receive the items poorly or that she would feel needy or incompetent or think that I thought she was needy or incompetent. So the group leader came up with cunning way to give her these items without actually giving them to her. She said at the beginning of the group, "Someone has donated some items. They are on the back table. There is a VCR there. Um....hmmm...Hey M (I know the Netherlands woman's name starts with an M, but I can't remember the rest of it) weren't you saying last week that you didn't have a VCR? Well...there's one here for you if you want. There's also some baby girl clothes in a box back there that you can help yourself to." Netherlands woman is the only one with a baby girl. The rest of us have baby boys. So this gave her opportunity to go take the items instead of having someone give them to her. And she did. She took everything. I kept hearing her say "wow" as she was looking through the stuff.

What made me really happy was that Netherlands woman shared during the group that they had bought a barbeque last weekend. I'm hoping that's a sign that their financial situation is starting to look up.

At the end of all this, I did get a mini-lecture from the group leader. She said it in a very nice way. She said, "Dawnelle, I want to give you permission to leave everybody else's junk at group. You don't have to take it home with you..."
I had already done a lot of thinking about my motivation for helping this woman. Was I trying to rescue her? Did I feel responsible for her? Was this just the Christian response? Or did I just want to give her a boost with an act of kindness?

I decided I felt no obligation, I just wanted to do a little something for another hurting person. So I did. And I think it's really cool that 3 other complete strangers partnered with me to help this woman!!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Cake & Toys



It was Elijah's 3rd Birthday on Saturday!!








He loved his birthday cake! It was an angel food race track with real die-cast metal cars from Cars: The Movie on top.

Cool! Cake AND toys! You can see him in the picture eyeing the cars on the top of the cake.


Earlier this month I asked him who he wanted to come to his birthday party.

"Um...Daddy!" he said.
"Who else?" I asked.
"Mommy!" he replied.
"Okay. Who else?"
"Toviel!"
"Hmmm. Anyone else?" I prodded.
"Miss Megan!" he said. Megan is a friend of mine.
"What about some kids?"
"Naw." He said.
I think Elijah has figured out that adults are more fun because he always gets his way when he plays with adults.


Toviel also had a shot at some cake.
His first reaction was complete and utter disgust.
No gagging though, so that's a good sign.
He didn't taste any, but he did get his hands goopy without too much of a fuss.
Baby steps, baby!

Happy 3rd Birthday Elijah!!!