School's Out For Summer!


This is the front of my house yesterday about six thirty pm.



It's the Friday night bike club. The volume is incredible, the joy abounds, the freedom to do anything you want all day long rocks. Remember that feeling, at the start of summer vacation, where the next two months lay before you like a sunny forever? And building pyramids was tantamount to preparing for the Olympic games,



Happy summer, one and all.

A.

A few stolen minutes...

Before papa gets home, before dinner is served, before bath time and bed time and going out to VOTE time. Before bike riding, before calling Sam in, before getting Lady Luck out of her crib where the angel baby patiently waits for me to blog, sucking her two fingers and humming to fairies. Before I mail off the ebe's, before I take TWO MORE garbage bags to the Amity, before listing a few more items tonight, before watching my beloved CSI Miami rerun at 10pm.

As in, before the evening's to do list.

This is my favorite time of day for sunlight. Since I was a kid and this was the time my parents would be on the couch, reading the paper with our dog Sandy sleeping in between the couch and the coffee table, the sun like warm evening gold settling across the room. When I lived in Nova Scotia this would be the time Jay and i would be driving along Borgald's Point Road, or the number 3 Lighthouse Route Hwy, I mean you were driving right along the basin, with the sun dappled gold where the wind lifted the water, like an impressionist painting. This is when the late afternoon sits down and reminisces for a bit before toddling off to bed.

I better toddle myself. I smell something burning.
A.

Heya, it's feast or famine here in blogville. Right now feast on this second blog in the same day!
Geez, now I better come up with something profound to say I guess, huh?



Nope. Nuthin' comin'.

Just got back from a walk to the video store with the kiddies. I feel a bit like the Canada Day parade on Greenhill, with pushing the big double stroller with Monty in the front in his Canada flag shirt, waving a popsicle stick in the air, and Sam like a shriner on his bike weaving back and forth in front of us. All we need is an upside down clown and maybe a big trailing flag hanging off the back of the stroller and people would be setting out lawn chairs. "C'mon Harold, get out here I just made you a drink, she's coming down the street right now!"

I rented myself "Seven". It is a movie that I only ever saw half of so many years ago when it was the talk of the town, and I have been meaning to finish it someday. It kind of jumped out at me in Steel City Video. So I have a can of DC and some Tostitos and salsa and it is going to be a really good time.

The other thing I have been obsessed with these days is DECLUTTERING my house. I am hooked on the flylady.net emails and I have been flinging like mad. I have taken no less than NINE garbage bags to the Good will this week. My living room is gorgeous. The toys in there are down to two straw baskets, neatly placed under the windowsill. I have tossed a ton of clothes that don't fit don't look good don't know what possessed me to buy them in the first place. Can someone tell me why I needed four long denim skirts?
I am really excited to get things organized around here. My goal is to have some sort of system in place by the fall that means I can whip this place into shape when i need to without having to get professional help or taking three weeks to do it. I know some of you reading this are probably snoring right now, who on earth wants to read about someone cleaning their house?

Any HOO. I better go and crack open my red and white delight and get my big white butt into that platform rocker so I can enjoy my movie and not fall asleep.

Happy Sunday.
A.

Aloha,
Too long since my last post! What a lazy little blogger am I. I kept sitting down to blog and then deciding I had nothing to say yet. Dorky. Because that is how I used to journal, and then I would have these gorgeous hard cover journals with Anne Geddes babies or Flower Fairies on the front and maybe two or three pages of writing inside to cover a year or two of my life. I gotta get back in le saddle de blogge. This is why I write right now, even though I should totally get ready for churchola. Who's gonna notice if I don't have a shower anyways?
Been busy round here. Some virus had it's way with the Forderer's, starting with Lucy then Daddy then Monty then Sam. I must be either last or not getting it, which is very very good because who's gonna take care of mama when mama s'posed to take care of you? So it's been hijinks with high fevers and body aches and Monty barfing into a bowl in the car and me like Miss Clavel in Madeline, up and down the stairs at night holding the junior strength Tylenol out like a beacon in front of me.

Friday my mom and I had a gig, so I had to spend my precious computer time preparing for that. It went really well, though. It was our first outdoor gig and long at an hour and a half. They were a great group, the Haldimand Child & Youth workers, who even though I am sure get totally burnt out everyday by their jobs, were good sports and up for anything me and Adrienne asked of them. Fun.

I have been riding my bike often which is good, even if it is just to the video store at night to return the dvds it is something. And speaking of videos. Two Words. Mystic River.
What a film.
1. Star studded cast. It was all the actors who I feel like I know, who seem to reach beyond the film itself and not just act their parts but spend time with us. Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins (first time I have ever seen that boyish face of his look scary), and Sean Penn.
2. Sean Penn just exudes a father's grief in this movie. It is painful to watch his face contort and twist with emotion.
3. Love the stark outlines of this town and the gritty feel to the film quality. It is at once like an old seventies mystery and a slick modern film noir.
4. Great story that kept Jay and I EWO'd (eyes wide opened) for the entire two hours and ten minutes. No nodding off for me.
5. Marcia Gay Harden was also amazing. So sad though, how she stumbles around the town trying to figure out what to do, and then when she does do something it turns out to be the wrong thing, and then she is reeling, and has to live with her 'mistake' and without her Dave.
6. This movie is so much about the characters, because all I want to write about is each one. After it's over you sit there and wonder about them.
7. Yikes! It's 8:33 I gotta go.
A.

Hilo,
Rain-o-rama.
Got soaked getting the kidlets into the car this morning. Left the stroller out last night in the yard so it has soaked up about 30 litres of water so far. But my flowers are getting watered without any effort from me! And our poor grass which looks like crap because the nine boys that play at our house have destroyed parts of it by throwing each other down in wrestling contests is getting a much needed drink.

Walked over to Sandys with the kids for a swim and some supper last night. It was great. The boys had a blast in the pool that the Bigases got at Wal Mart for a hundred bucks. It is so wierd, that Sandy lives about a fifteen minute walk away from me, so cool that as kids we walked over to each other's houses to play (going back to 1978 here) and now we walk our own kids over with us to each other's houses, so they can play.

I gotta register for my final course at McMaster in Sept. For some reason May and June have kind of sidled by me without me really noticing them.

Watched "Last Comic Standing" last night. Great show. It is a reality show where the contestants actually deserve to get what they get. I mean, some of those comics have been doing it for thirty years. Lots of talent. They are down to ten comics who are going to live together in a house and perform constantly at nightclub venues to compete until there is only one comic left. If I had to guess who the last three comics standing will be right now, i would say Jay London, Gary Gulman, and Tammy Pescatelli. But thats just if i had to guess. I did not like Bonnie McFarland at all and I found Todd Glass only so/so.

Alright well I promised myself i would clean from 1 to 3 today and it's five to so i better fly. Later.

So my boys made the community page of Canadian Living this month:




Hey, it ain't the cover of Rolling Stone, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. I sent this in a few months ago. I subscribe to Canadian Living every month, and I had flicked through this month's issue without even seeing the pic. Then today at book group Leigh Anne says to me, "So are your kids famous now or what?" I am like, "Huh?"
I was thrilled to hear that the pic got in. I managed to find my copy under the couch when I got home. Hope I can get a few more copies at the store still.... What fun, eh?

A.

Full Weekend, Full Life.

Did lots this weekend. Fri Tracy came over in the afternoon and we hung out and even got to watch 'A Chorus Line' dvd. Love that movie, and T hadn't ever seen it so it was even more fun to watch it through fresh eyes. I remember seeing it at the theatre when I was fifteen at the Centre Mall with my friend Heather and we danced all the way home. After we hung out with the kidlets and made homemade fries and who knows what then at nine we watched 'Calendar Girls' with Oma. Great movie! What a riot, with the older English
ladies who posed nude for a calendar to raise money. We hooted and howled and even cried a bit. And can I say that if I look half as good as Helen Mirren at sixty I would be really pleased.

Saturday was Kayes funeral. Wow. This woman was really special. Standing room only and all these people who loved her and were loved by her! What a life. She grew up in Lion's Head Ontario, was a welder in the early forties for a machine tubing company at seventeen, married at nineteen, had seven kids, and shared everything she had with anyone who asked. Her house was always full of people. She was no nonsense and all love. The minister said that lots of people had told him 'she made me want to be a better person.' It was a really nice day, sad and touching and amazing. I could barely look at my mother in law without welling up as she made her way through the room to look at the pictures and flowers, crying all the way. And Jay was choked up for like, ten hours. We get these little glimpses, if we are lucky, of our loved ones, that are so pure and show us exactly why we love them. Man, it's almost palpable. And that is how I felt looking at Jay across the room on Saturday.

Sunday was church which was good. Really liking the 'Law and Order' series that Lane is doing, although I have the theme song in my head for about three days afterward. They had a baby dedication for a little fella and he wore an heirloom christening gown made from a WWII parachute. How cool is that?

Then we went to see the darling new baby Silver, who is sweet as a lifesaver and soooo cute with her black hair and tiny everything. What a dolly Grace is. I kind of want to go back today and see her again, and maybe tomorrow drop by.... I didn't really get to hold her for very long.

I had a lovely nap on the couch with Monty yesterday afternoon, which is a real treat. For one, Monty does not nap per se anymore. Once in a while he exhausts himself so thoroughly that he falls asleep on the spot, but mostly its go go go all day from six thirty am till seven thirty pm. For two, I am not a good napper either. I have the restless legs that mean I have enough trouble falling asleep at night, never mind nodding off during the day. So it was nice to have a lay down from four to six, and enjoy some of those vivid daytime dreams that you have with the background noise of your house going on adding to the chaos in your dream world.

Okay the weekend descrip isnt over but I left Lucy in her high chair and monty outside in the yard in his dalmation costume so i better go see whats what.
Happy monday all.
A.

Joanne had her baby! Here is the little ducky herself:



Grace Alma Jane Silver June 11, 2004

I can't post much, as I am going to meet her for the first time right now! Whoopee!

A.

ARgaloo,
Went to 33 Hess tonight to try to get on the amateur stand up comedy night. They werent open when we got there at nine so we walked down the street to the Doors Pub to kill time. Went back at 10 and there were people there but noone on stage or anything. We asked when the comedy was happening and the bouncer guy (who was busy reading a Maxim magazine behind the bar) said, "When people get here, I guess." Classy. So we kind of left and went home. I mean, I was not willing to stay there till midnight and then what if noone showed up?

Dorky. I miss Yuk Yuks. YOu could count on it every wed night at 9 pm, with a decent M/C and a solid line up. Too bad they closed down and are only open fri and sat for the headliners. They do, however, have an amateur night on the last Wed of Every month so I am going to get a five min set ready for that and go at the end of June. Now that I have been a little discouraged by this 33 Hess nonsense it makes my determination to get back out there even stronger. And I watched "Last comic standing" last night for two hours and it has also been a bit of a spur to 'prick the sides of my intent.' So.

Other than that some fun thingys coming up. I think I am going to book the Forderers in at DArien Lake for Jay's week off this summer. We would also like to have a summer party which we have done every year since we moved in this house 'cept last year because it was the summer of Lucy. We usually have some live music or karaoke thing going on. Fun. And speaking of L it is going to be her very first birthday in a few weeks, my little ducky girl is getting big! And I would like to do this awesome toronto deal with the Producers and the Alice Fazoolis and the hotel etc for 150 bucks. Just gotta line up the sitters.

We have a funeral service on Sat. A long time friend of Jay's family, they called her "Auntie Kaye" passed away on Monday night. She was a real neat lady with a deep voice and when she hugged ya you knew you were getting hugged. Jay has known her almost his whole life, she was a great friend of Oma's (my MIL). One story about her is that she was putting lipstick on before bed, and Oma turned to her and said, "Kaye, why are you putting on lipstick? You are going to bed?!" She turned to Oma and said, "Oh Carole. You never know who you'll meet in your dreams."
So rest in peace Auntie Kaye. I am sure you'll give them all a run for their money up there.

Alright well time to get these old bones to bed.

Night.

Gimme an H
Gimme an O
Gimme a T

We decided not to go for the air conditioning, ergo, life is just a little warm right now. Especially up in my room, where my computer is. HHHooottt up here. I can barely put a few thoughts together for blogging because all I can think of is bbbblllaaaahhhhooootttt.

Monty is better. Drugs have kicked in, so that is good. And noone else seems to be coming down with anything around here, which is great.

My Jola Silver has not had her baby yet. I think Friday she can go in and get induced. If I am hot, she must be friggin dying. I remember last year, having had Luce on July 2, just holding the freezer door open for twenty minutes with my head stuck in it. Or hanging out in the laundry room because it is cooler down there. I think I will bring my coco a box of popsicles later today. Hear that Jo? Mamas coming with some frozen treats for ya.

I enrolled Monty in Camp Sprites! Whoopee! He goes for the second week of july, from 830-430 from mon to fri. Can't imagine a week without him here during the day. I think he will have fun. I know I will be able to get some long overdue house thingys done around here. Amazing how just getting one of the three out of the house (granted, its the busy one) for five days in a row seems like I will be having this big vacation.

Alright well now i am sitting here just trying to come up with something interesting to write but it will just be more of the same. I am hot. The Monty chronicles. etc. I'll spare you all for today and be back later maybe with some life changing bits of wise-dom.
A

I think I may have to dedicate an entire blog to Monty. It will be called the Tilt-a-Whirl.blogspot.com. That kid, man. He had a cold over the weekend and boom, by Monday morning he is wheezing and struggling to breathe. So it turns out that overnight he ends up with a chest infection, double up on the antibiotics, two puffers, the woiks. So all night I am watching his little tummy laboring to breathe. And this morning the first thing he does is violently puke all over the upstairs hallway. Not sure how the vomitus is related to the other things but I am guessing it is a virus mixed in with the infection? I don't know.
All I know is my vibrant middle child looks like one of the kids kept in the basement in Mordechai Richlers Jacob Two Two books.
He is all dark circles around the eyes and pale pale skin.
Do not fear, however, my good friends, he is still wreaking havoc, threw three badminton rackets down the stairs at 630 this morning with a huge clang that woke the whole house up. And when I went to make Lucy's bottle he said, "I already did it mommy." And lo, I look in her crib and there is some sort of watery concoction in there with her, which I think was a bottle with a bit of formula in it from last night that he just up and added H2O to and then fed to his unsuspecting little sis.

Ahhh.

So today is a sick day, homeroo. Soo glad I am a stay home mama and that I can not worry about anything but taking care of my little albatross. Maybe I will get some more reading done of my Life and Death in Shanghai which is awesome. It is true account of Nien Cheng who was imprisoned (for six and a half years!) during the Cultural Revolution in China in the late sixties as a foreign spy. It is one of those books that you learn from, and I am loving it. seven hundred pages about Communism in China and Chairman Mao and all his cockamamie ways of getting the people to fall in and march to the beat of the proletariat. Really good.

Alright well for once i am finishing the blog at eight am. gotta go, I think M is about to upchuck his apple juice.
c

It's 8:16 am and I am ready to call it a day.

This morning at 6:57 I am trying to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep, even though Lucy is up talking to herself in her crib and Jay had already gotten up with Monty at his usual 6:45. Jay had gotten back into bed after letting him out of his room. (We have a little hook and eye latch on the outside of his door.) This is not a normal practice. Usually when Monty gets up, one of us gets up and stays up with him. But not today.

So I get up to make Lucy her bottle, go downstairs, passing Monty's open door on my way. As I am coming down the stairs I see that the front door is open (screen door shut). My heart does a little hippity hop and I go into the living room and of course,

NO MONTY.

So I do a quick check through the house calling his name (which, if any of you have a three year old, calling their names is pretty much like telling them to be very quiet and hide) and no dice. I go up to our bedroom and grab a pair of jeans. "Monty is gone." I say to Jay, in an even tone, as he is predisposed to panic.

He leaps out of bed and we go outside. No Monty. I take one side and he takes the other, as we are on a corner. It is a bright clear morning and all I say to myself as I am walking is 'please God' because I am sure He knows exactly what I am referring to. Jay and I lock eyes across the front lawn in that desperate way that parents do when they have these things going on.

And then I see him. In the car, having a grand old time. He waves at me, big grin, and shows me that he has the car key in his hand. I just point at him. YOU.

I don't even bother to try to get him to unlock the doors from the inside because it will just turn into a game for him and I am not in the mood for him to have any more fun, thank you very much. So I go in, get the keys, Jay gets him out, we both yell at him and up he goes into his room. For a half hour. Which, when you are three, might as well be six months. Every time he yells, "Lemme out! I be GOOD!" We both yell back. "YOU DO NOT GO OUTSIDE BY YOURSELF."

When we figure the repetitious propaganda has had it's effect we let him out. And hope that it sticks. At least for a day or two.

I tell ya. A kid like Monty is not for the faint of heart. And if any of you are wondering why we don't have a lock on the inside of the front door, don't bother. We do. He brought a toy bin down from his room, turned it over, stood on it to unlock the latch, and neatly placed it beside the door. So today I am off to Home Depot to see what else they got in the way of home security. Forget burglars. We need resident security. From the inside out.

And some nitroglycerin tablets for Jay and I to get the old tickers back on track.

Gotta go. I got so absorbed in writing this that Sam has missed the bus. If any of you pass by a church today, wouldja say 'Hey God,Keep up the good work with that middle Forderer kid eh?'
thanks.

Can't believe it is JUne 2 already. Last year at this time I was 8 mos preggers with Lady Luck, sleeping about 3 hours a night, just gettin by from one day to the next.

What a difference a year makes.

Ahhhh. M'hood. Monty is freaking out in his room because he was being a total brat-wurst. He is laying on the couch watching Rugrats. Sam comes in and sits on the other end of the couch. Monty tells him to get off the couch, it's his couch, and moseys on down to Sam's end and tries to push him off. Sam yells. I intervene. Monty does it again, as soon as i leave the room. I tell him one more time and he is in his room. He lasts about three minutes and then hoofs Sam again. So now he is in his room, throwing stuff willy nilly. I think i need to build a quiet room in this house. One with padded walls and a deadbolt and absolutely nothing inside it. That way these time outs don't result in M destroying his room, taking all the clothes out of his dresser and flinging them around, pulling the bloody mattress off his bed, etc.

So I just let him out. Now he is bawling right beside me because he asked me for another popsicle and I said no. Ahhh. "I SICK, mommy, I need it for my SICK!"

Whatever, kid.

So how it goes now is in oh about thirty seconds I will hear the ole kitchen stool going across the floor and the freezer door opening with a creak and the rustly sounds of a popsicle being carefully extracted from the box. And I will go down and because he has it in his hands and now considers it a fait accompli, he will scream like I am sawing into his leg with a ginsu knife when I manage to pry it from his small cold hands.

Can you tell that Daddy is golfing tonight? And that I am feeling under the weather with a wicked cold. Hence the play by play of misery for your reading pleasure.

Oh! I found this movie trivia game thingy, have been meaning to do this. Here are three movie quotes. Name the movie they are from.

1. "I will NOT be ignored!" (1987)
2. "She can dance... She's got the wrong partner of course, but she can dance." (1977)
3. "Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ!" (1988)

Okay, time for popsicle wrestling.

A.

Today is pay off Uncle Donny day.

I will be VERY glad to hand the cheque to him at 4 pm. I know he is my uncle and olderly and i should have a little respect, but MAN ALIVE he has been one tough nut to deal with during this whole thing.

Everytime I have phoned him to tell him of the latest developments he has been ornery and grumbly. And he is making sure he does not lose ONE DIME from us before he is paid off. I mean, the guy wanted to charge me 25 bucks a day interest until the mortgage was paid off in May after the first of the month. And so I bumped it to June 1st so that he would get his whole mortgage payment and not be able to charge me. And then he calls me and says he won't sign to discharge the mortgage unless the bank guarantees he gets his money within 24 hours because 'if they take their time, I get screwed'. What he is talking about is basically twenty five or fifty bucks, as the mortgage was to go through on the first or second of June.

He is just mad that after making pots of money from us guys, his options of what to do with his money mean he makes a fraction of the interest he was making from us every month. So he is trying to make that sweet interest last until the cup is bone dry. Get over it, already. Its over. You are seventy eight. Leave your poor neice alone.

Weird man. What they say about family and money is true. It's sticky. Because I am related to him (He is my GODfather, for petes sake) I kind of expect that he would be decent. He doesnt have to be generous, I don't want anything extra, but just decent. And it seems that through this whole thing he has been sour grapes because I want to go to a bank and get a real mortgage after having one with him at high interest for three years. I mean, he is the type to get the most out of his money (to put it way too nicely), but when I try to do the same he is completely annoyed.

Blech. I have said before that money and me aint close friends. I refuse to make money a problem in my life. I have enough to eat, enough to pay my bills, enough to help others with. And that is that. You will never hear me whine about bills. What is the damn point? We all got em. I just saw that the interest rates for mortgages have gone way down since we purchased this house and thought I would do something about that. I can't wait for this nonsense to be over. I mean, there are people out there with REAL money probs. Real unemployment. Real hungry kids. Real negative bank accounts.

Alright. I'm done. Over and out. Alpha Alpha Zulu Beta signing off of self pity station. Hope I am not back for a long while.