z’s bubbles 2

Yesterday was Gillian’s 6th birthday party. Poor Ruth was agonizing while preparing the event even though the rest of us had complete faith in her and the event. Especially remembering how awesome the halloween party was last fall!

And it was absolutey brilliant. Watching the girls have so much fun… Even Liam participated, though at the end of the day, he had enough of girls. I probably should remember that to remind him of it when he’s in his late teens… *lol*

It also served as a reminder how wonderful our children are. It is so easy to think everyone else has it made, financially, spiritually and when it comes to parenting. Though it most cases that is definately not the case. Seeing the children play, watching their reactions, it was so obvious that all of them are wonderful children but that really there is something we must be doing right as ours turned out so even-keeled. And I don’t mean to sound llike I’m bragging…

Anyway, hopefully Roo or I will post some pics later on

This week, even though rather busy seems to not be bad at all…

Wednesday Ruth organized a trip to a put-put/laser-tag/go-cart racing park with her brothers and their significant others. It was really enjoyable, even though the go-cars were a joke… We’ll definately will have to do a speedzone trip in the near future

Everyone else seemed to have enjoyed themselves too. We should let Ruth organize more outings. Definitely!

Then my work week started again… Yesterday went by really fast as it was a steady stream of work. It was all tickets, no projects, but it was ok. Today should be more productive though and some project work should be done.

We shall see how the day goes

At the height of what was a rather entertaining day (between errands, lunch with Grand-ma, an afternoon with bank statements and dinner with Oma), we went to an “open house” at Gillian’s school. It was neat to see what all they had laid out for the kids; a giant checklist with items to complete. And it was nice to get to see some of the parents again and meet some of the teachers.

But there was one moment where I almost lost it…

We were walking down the hallway to Gillian’s classroom and on one of the walls were pictures of all the kids dressed up as “presidents”. And my mother honestly says: “This is a bit like the veneration for a king isn’t it?” Unfortunately, I do not have the presence of mind of my sweet wife or the eloquence of my friend Alan. Thus my response was a short “Not really, but I understand for YOU to think that way”.

In reality I wanted to launch into her, drilling her with questions to finally find out what in bloody hell she believes in! Obviously she doesn’t believe in any kind of deity no matter how often she would tell me that she’s catholic! Obviously she has no foundation of morals anymore as she tolerated my dad’s addiction to pornography for years and then is surprised by him having an affair for 10+ years?! And then has a FRIEND propose to her to get a “house friend”??? She doesn’t believe that by working hard and smart you can achieve your dreams.

Yet at the same time, she’s here enjoying the fruit of what others have fought for. The freedom she has, the possibilities she has, the mere fact that she can complain about anything from government to religion…. If she had been in ANY other country right now, she’d be in so much trouble. A 58 y/o woman with absolutely no income of her own, who hasn’t worked in almost 30 years, who has nothing to her name because her dim-whit husband lost it all in a gamble as he was too chicken to fire his accountant over unpaid taxes (twice!)??

Kings… at least those men on those pictures fought for something, believed in something… She obviously doesn’t.

Sorry for rambling. She just makes me so mad….

While going through what we had coming up this week, we realized last night that it may not be a bad idea to go visit Ruth’s family today. So at 8am this morning, I snatched my mom’s van and 50 mins later, the three of us were on the road. After some quite good waffles of course

Attending church was up North was… different than usual. First, the new seats confused me big time as ordinarily, everyone is sitting to the left of the room, today they were on the opposite side. Second, Ruth’s baby brother looked like a different man: orderly hair, suit and tie… Nice change! Third, the looniness that usually permeates through the 1st-Sunday-of-the-month meeting wasn’t there. Sure there were one or two people that made you chuckle or roll your eyes, but other than that, it was surprisingly normal…

Second hour was spent as usual in the hallways between vain attempts to walk Cora to sleep and listening to Ruth’s dad. He is so funny at times.

Third hour, I let Cora play vacuum cleaner by laying out a trail of cheerios on the carpet and letting her gobble them up. She was so precious.

The next 4 hours were almost as usual: people talking waiting for food, people eating huge amounts of food that seems to never fill you up followed by everyone wanting to go to sleep…. We snuck out for a walk which ended up in us playing catch thanks to Gillian. It was cute. In addition Ruth started playing 10-reasons-why-I-love-you with me. I think the results so far were… surprising. Some of the things she said about me sure made me feel completely unworthy and undeserving of the hand of such a wonderful woman…

Then, fixing Grand-ma’s computer (again),watching Veggie-tales, playing with Cora and off we went home waving good-bye to Valton and Nicole on the way.

Once home, gobbling up some leftover pizza before Ruth flies out the door for Messiah practice.

And then the twilight zone began. Cora wont let me put her down or she melts down in a cloud of tears and snot (since she hasn’t slept all day), I have to run to the bathroom, Gillian is dragging dinner out to no end and when she’s finally coming, Liam is acting completely terrified of the water asking for PJs which ended up in Liam in PJs screaming in his bed (in the dark), Gillian sitting in the tub not knowing what just happened and Cora screaming in her bed after the fastest bath ever! Then, after getting Gillian out, reading them both 2 books on Liam’s bed, Liam who is transformed into a cute cuddly sweetheart all the sudden and tucking them both in their beds, it’s time to rescue Cora again…

After 8 ounces of formula and the last 45 minutes of Flushed Away, she’s completely happy, smiling, giggling… no signs of the monster that took her over only minutes earlier…

As I put her to bed (now happily) I peek in Gillian and Liam’s room to see Gillian playing with ‘Mater and her flashlight, quietly in her bed, and Liam reading “Joshua’s Potty” book to himself (he has an excellent memory!) in a low voice. And when I can’t resist any longer and give them both another hug and a kiss, Gillian asks quite seriously, “What are you doing here, Papa?”.

*lol* Kids… Such little miracles

So how did this week go?
I do not remember much of Mon-Tue… too busy with busywork really…

But my work week was pretty good. The two projects that I have to coordinate through bozo are still a pain, but at least there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (April 1st, no pun intended). And of course there are still too many fires to put out to do anything really worthwhile.

The scary part though is that Khalil2 seems to be under so much pressure (either real or imagined) that he asks us to cut corners to turn projects faster. That’s sad as those usually result in more work when you have to fix the corners you cut in the first place.

At home, Cora is being such a little wonder. She is definitely the happiest baby ever. Sure she gets cranky when she’s tired or hungry. But in between those moments: she sleeps decently, she smiles and coos ALL THE TIME! Simply amazing.

Gillian and Liam are also blossoming under Ruth’s wise guidance.

And Ruth is being a complete angel. Yes she is.