by Heather Plett | Nov 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
Tonight I leave for Alberta – a trip I’m not looking forward to. Not only do I NOT want to leave my kids and husband and my new niece, I feel a little like I’m heading into enemy territory. As I’ve mentioned before, for reasons I won’t go into, we had to fire our Alberta coordinator, and because she managed to convince at least some of our many supporters and volunteers in Alberta that we are the bad guys, out to destroy her life, the thought of coming face to face with some of these people (not to mention the person we fired) does not leave me jumping for joy.
So I’m thinking… it sure would be nice to bring along some friendly reinforcement as I head out into the “war zone”. Doesn’t every soldier face the battlefront with reinforcements? Who wants to come along? It could make for an interesting trip. Tomorrow, after staying with my brother and sister-in-law and hanging out with my other brother and sister-in-law and all the kids (thank GOD for family), I have to drive 4 hours into the war zone. Just imagine the trip, if we rented a bus and you all came along to “shore me up”.
Cuppa would make us all thermoses of tea to keep us warm and cozy on the ride. Anvilcloud would take pictures of each of us, and switch our heads or edit out our blemishes. We’d upload pictures of the “enemy” and he’d photoshop them until they were unrecognizable and worthy of a good laugh. The Wikkerink sisters would bring baskets of delicious food and we’d stop to picnic at a roadside park. Linda would help me remember I’m stronger than I think I am, and Michele would make jokes about the-person-who-shall-remain-nameless. Yvonne would help us keep our minds off our troubles by engaging us all in some creative activity. Accidental Poet would keep us entertained with stories about carved candles we found in the glove compartment. CCAP (with whom I’ve taken more roadtrips than anyone) would bring great snacks and take a awesome group photo while we stopped for lunch. She’d sit by me without saying much, but she’d help me remember I could handle anything. We’d all take turns cuddling with little Abigail. Stephanie would tell us about her play and pass around a few good books to keep us entertained as we drove. We’d trust Dale behind the wheel of the bus, because of his many hours driving a train. He’d remind me to “step out of the boat” with courage. Colleen would bring her puppy and we’d all take turns playing with him. Eric and Micah would entertain us with some Mandolin and Fiddle pickin’. Others, like Mel and Suzanne would tell stories that would keep us on the edges of our seats.
Imagine – the blog bus out on the open road. By the time I reached my destination, I’d be invincible.
That is what I will think about those four hours in a car all alone tomorrow.
by Heather Plett | Nov 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
I have a new niece! Abigail Margaret arrived last night at 6:39 p.m. She is, of course, beautiful. She has a full head of dark hair, like her daddy. She weighs 7 lbs 13 oz.
I’m tempted to post pictures, but I don’t want to steal all the thunder from ccap. I’ll leave the first photos to her. She’ll be in the hospital until tomorrow – check her blog some time after that for photo evidence.
It was a long and hard delivery, but in the end, the family is complete and happy. You know, after having a stillborn baby, a person never ever takes a live healthy baby for granted. There were moments during the long day of waiting, that I had mini panic attacks imagining the worst, because I know the worst CAN happen. But thank God, in the end, the very best happened and we are all celebrating.
Abigail’s cousins are very, very happy. They can hardly think of anything else. They’ve been dancing around the house rejoicing. This baby will be very special to them.
by Heather Plett | Nov 4, 2005 | Uncategorized
Yesterday, when I got home from work, Nikki pulled me into my bedroom and closed the door behind me. “Mom, I need to talk to you,” she said, with that distressed look on her face that I know too well.
It turns out that, on the bus ride home from school yesterday, meanboyC (one of 2 mean brothers that lives in the housing complex across the street – I’ve blogged about them before) asked her, in front of a bunch of other 4th and 5th grade boys, whether she was a virgin. Not knowing what it meant, and not wanting to be embarrassed, she said “no”. Of course, it was the wrong answer, and the boys errupted in peals of laughter at her expense. Before the end of the bus ride, she knew what the word meant, and knew the cause of their laughter and her humiliation.
“Mom,” she said, through her tears, “I pretended I was reading so they wouldn’t notice that I was trying not to cry.”
GRRRR!!!! I am just SO annoyed at these two pipsqueaks who continuously torment my children and other children at school and on the bus. It’s been going on for a few years now – they are rotten little children who only know how to get attention through bad behaviour. Both Marcel and I have had opportunity in the past to yell at them at the bus stop for doing stupid things like dodging cars as they drive by, or throwing snowballs at passing motorists.
At supper time, we talked about it as a family, and we heard story after story of their bad behaviour. Julie reports meanboyM using the “F” word to her in the playground, and teasing her to make her feel stupid. And the stories go on and on.
I wish they’d get kicked out of school! I know they probably have a tough family life – their mother looks permanently frazzled trying to cope with her life – but I WISH they didn’t have to take that out on MY KIDS!
This morning, Marcel drove the girls to school (Nikki was nervous of getting teased again on the bus) and he stopped to talk to the principal about it. Turns out there was another report of misbehaviour on the bus yesterday, so he may be suspended from bus use AGAIN. But these short term suspensions aren’t doing any long term good. And in the meantime, so many kids, including my own, are getting subjected to idiotic bullying.
by Heather Plett | Nov 4, 2005 | Uncategorized
HOW is a person supposed to get a decent night’s sleep when you get a call at 1:00 a.m. that your sister, soulmate, and very best girlfriend, has gone into labour and is on her way to the hospital? It’s beyond me! ‘Course I KNOW that I got a better night’s sleep than SHE did, but I couldn’t help lying awake thinking about what she’s going through and wishing I could do something to help her.
Sometimes I wish that pain was a community burden thing – that you could lessen the load by divvying it out to people who were willing. I’d take a share of it for her today.
This morning we hear that she is 3 centimetres dilated. Still waiting…
Do you THINK I’ll be able to concentrate at work today?
by Heather Plett | Nov 4, 2005 | Uncategorized
Just for fun, let me invite you into a little-seen room in my home. It’s the room that only a select few intrepid souls have ever dared to enter. It’s the laundry room/storage room/pantry/furnace room/place where all the junk that has no other logical place gets dumped.
Sadly, this room represents the worst in me – my propensity for clutter, my inability to complete mundane tasks like laundry, my sloppiness, my procrastination, my avoidance of all things “housework” – I could go on and on, but the list is starting to depress me. I’m sure by now you’re getting the picture WHY so few people have ever been invited in.
I could wax allegorical about how this room represents the deep dark recesses of my soul – those ugly pieces of my personality that I hide from the world. But I’ll leave that to you to figure out. Suffice it to say that this room needed work – desperately.
Well, I’m happy to report that this room (like much of the rest of my house) has undergone a transformation. I decluttered, I scrubbed, I tossed, I tore out old musty carpeting, and I got down on my hands and knees and put in a new floor.
Without much further adieu, here are the before and after pictures.
Before
This is how it has looked for nearly all of the 7 years we’ve lived in this house. Disgusting, isn’t it? Junk everywhere, scraps of the world’s ugliest carpet on the floor (which, sadly, still covers the rest of the basement until we can afford to replace it), overflowing laundry baskets, you name it.
After
And this is what it looks like now. Everything in its place, laundry cleaned and put away (where it can FIT now that everyone’s dressers and closets are decluttered), and a clean and shiny new floor! Nothing fancy – I just bought those cheap peal-and-stick floor tiles – they may not last forever, but they sure look great now!
So there you have it. I’m hoping a room transformed will continue to inspire me to keep all those nasty bad habits in check (or at least SOME of them – can’t expect perfection, after all).
by Heather Plett | Nov 3, 2005 | Uncategorized
Michele over at the Laundromat, misses me, and so I will sneak a few moments to post.
Yes, I finally feel better, but when I finally shook off the virus, I found myself caught in a whirlwind of stuff that got left undone when I was out of commission for a week. Perhaps after today, I can catch my breath again.
I had a couple of posts ready to go… even typed up one and tried to post it about 5 times, but our computer’s been acting finicky lately. Marcel downloaded some new stuff – cybersitter and new firewall stuff, and it doesn’t seem to like Blogger. Nor does it like some of the blogs I normally visit. (NO – they’re not nasty blogs – just ordinary ones like Anvilcloud’s – nothing pornographic about THAT!)
So, here’s a list of some of the things I was GOING to post:
– for Halloween, my kids dressed as a Princess (Maddie), a punk rocker (Julie), and the Pillsbury Doughboy (Nikki). I used to go to great lengths to dress them in costumes that had some relation to each other (and as some of you know – spent many hours on a sewing machine late at night on October 30th nearly every year), but the more they develop their own personalities, the more their costumes reflect their own creativity. I like the way their little minds work. I’ll try to post pics some day.
– I have transformed my laundry room, and I have a great post about it, but that’s the one that my computer won’t cooperate with. I cleaned, I decluttered, I scrubbed, I tugged out old carpetting, and I got down on my hands and knees and applied floor tiles. Now I just go in there on a regular basis to gaze upon my work and smile.
– I’ve fallen behind at work and because I’m missing a staff person (the one that got fired), I’m having to pull double-duty on a bunch of stuff. I lay awake at nights sometimes stressing about the stuff I’ve forgotten to do and the people I’ve let down because I let things slip through the cracks. I hope it gets better soon.
– On Sunday I leave for Alberta for a trip I really dread (related to the above point). But on the up-side, I get to see some of my family in Calgary.
– I’m waiting almost as anxiously as CCAP for the baby that hasn’t arrived yet. For nearly ten years, CCAP and her boy have been like second parents for my kids, and now I’ll finally get to do the same for theirs. I get all teary-eyed just thinking about it. I’m not much of a “baby-holder” (I leave that up to Marcel, who can’t get enough of it), but you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll fight for THIS baby.
That’s enough for now. Gotta get back to work now.
Are ya happy now, Michele? 😉
