Well, the second week of school is done, and today I thought for a moment that Cameron might actually make it to the babysitter's without crying. He did pretty good, actually; He didn't start crying until I put him down at Wendy's house. Usually it starts the second I pull up to her curb, if not sooner. Today was also the first day I paid for Wendy's services... $218 for 8 days, (two weeks, but both weeks were missing Monday). That's marginally cheaper than I expected it to be, add $40 for the two missed Mondays and it'll be exactly what I budgeted, so I'm happy with it.
Tomorrow we'll all buckle down and clean the house and get the laundry and shopping done - I'm hoping to turn this into routine, so when Saturday comes everyone knows what to expect. On Sunday we'll be taking the boys to do a walk for the Terry Fox Run. Last year we (James and I) ran the 5k, but this year seeing as how we have the kids with us and both James and I are pretty unconditioned for the run, we'll be walking. This year I'll be walking in memory of my Grandma, Joyce McLachlan, who passed away from cancer in July.
After the walk we'll pack everyone up and head to the beach for the afternoon. The weather is supposed to be really nice so we'll take the boat out and the bigger boys'll try to catch some fish while Cameron and I make sandcastles on the beach. If we're lucky, maybe I'll actually remember to bring my camera!
School is going wonderfully, for both myself and The Boy. I just got my first essay assignment, 12-15 pages due the end of November...I have 30 topics to choose from, but I think I'll be writing on how the French viewed the Natives in early Canada. I know that James finds the topic incredibly stimulating... /sarcasm. I'm going to get an early start on it, though, or at least try, so I have less to keep me away from Nanowrimo, in November.
The Boy brought home his first ever spelling quiz today; he got a perfect score. I'm proud of him. :)
About Me
So, I'm almost finished my second week of school, and so far it's been a success. Last week was completely an introductory week, and most classes let out early after only giving out the outline. The commute after a few days was really unappealing, especially on the days where I"m only on campus for only 30 minutes. I also discovered that if I'm late and manage to miss the 9:20 train, then I'm forced to wait 15 minutes for the next one. This cuts it way too close to class start time and results in a lot more exertion than I'm used to before noon.
The long weekend was really nice, and as usual not long enough. James and I went to Sonic Boom, 'Edmonton's Modern Rock Music Festival' where we enjoyed bands such as USS, Metric, Ill Scarlet, and Franz Ferdinand. Billy Talent was headlining and was awesome! It was totally worth 12 hours baking under the sun and having to sit on a concrete parking lot between sets. I also had my share of burgers, smokies, ice cream and virgin margaritas that night. There was a beer gardens there, but we never made it in...the line was too long and the area was too cramped - we would have had to sit on the ground there, as well.
The next day, Sunday, we were supposed to make attempt #3 of our hot air balloon ride. The plan was, since we had such bad luck with sunset rides, we'd try a sunrise one. So, James and I stayed at a hotel and waited for the call in the morning so we could go ballooning. At 6:40am my sister calls....it was raining and the ride was canceled. Again. It's hard to believe, after 3 failures, that it'll ever really happen. James is starting to wonder if the balloon is mythical. However, on my way into the city today I saw 3 balloons floating majestically over the city skyline, so they are out there.
Despite the failed balloon ride, I got to spend time with my family, which is what it's all about, anyway. We went out for breakfast at Smitty's then hung out at my sisters for a while. At 4 we went to my cousin Jamie's for a bbq, where I met up with my Uncle Alan and Aunt Rita as well as cousins Jen and Kim. We had a great time chatting with everyone and ate way to good very yummy bbq food and a virtual mountain of german chocolate cake that Rita made. I was so full...
We got home in time for the kids bed time, and just as they started getting jammies on, our power went out, quite dramatically. It was out for 2 hours. James and I, bored with out electric entertainment, decided to go to bed at 11. Just as we blew out the candle, the lights came back on. We went to sleep, anyway.
That brings us to Monday... the long weekend was spent cleaning my house, with help from my boys, doing laundry, and getting groceries. Sounds like a crappy holiday Monday, but I got to spend it with my boys at home and it felt pretty nice, after I got over a little morning crabbiness thanks to the very persistent goofy cheerfulness of my hubby.
And this week at school has been great. I'm not even minding the commute. I absolutely love going to the lectures and doing the readings. I'm even finding that I'm a better mom, when I'm home, than when I was home 24/7. I have more patience, I'm happier, and I'm more on top of things like chores and keeping the place tidy. Today I came home from school and made cookies and muffins.
I feel good, and I'm really happy.
The long weekend was really nice, and as usual not long enough. James and I went to Sonic Boom, 'Edmonton's Modern Rock Music Festival' where we enjoyed bands such as USS, Metric, Ill Scarlet, and Franz Ferdinand. Billy Talent was headlining and was awesome! It was totally worth 12 hours baking under the sun and having to sit on a concrete parking lot between sets. I also had my share of burgers, smokies, ice cream and virgin margaritas that night. There was a beer gardens there, but we never made it in...the line was too long and the area was too cramped - we would have had to sit on the ground there, as well.
The next day, Sunday, we were supposed to make attempt #3 of our hot air balloon ride. The plan was, since we had such bad luck with sunset rides, we'd try a sunrise one. So, James and I stayed at a hotel and waited for the call in the morning so we could go ballooning. At 6:40am my sister calls....it was raining and the ride was canceled. Again. It's hard to believe, after 3 failures, that it'll ever really happen. James is starting to wonder if the balloon is mythical. However, on my way into the city today I saw 3 balloons floating majestically over the city skyline, so they are out there.
Despite the failed balloon ride, I got to spend time with my family, which is what it's all about, anyway. We went out for breakfast at Smitty's then hung out at my sisters for a while. At 4 we went to my cousin Jamie's for a bbq, where I met up with my Uncle Alan and Aunt Rita as well as cousins Jen and Kim. We had a great time chatting with everyone and ate way to good very yummy bbq food and a virtual mountain of german chocolate cake that Rita made. I was so full...
We got home in time for the kids bed time, and just as they started getting jammies on, our power went out, quite dramatically. It was out for 2 hours. James and I, bored with out electric entertainment, decided to go to bed at 11. Just as we blew out the candle, the lights came back on. We went to sleep, anyway.
That brings us to Monday... the long weekend was spent cleaning my house, with help from my boys, doing laundry, and getting groceries. Sounds like a crappy holiday Monday, but I got to spend it with my boys at home and it felt pretty nice, after I got over a little morning crabbiness thanks to the very persistent goofy cheerfulness of my hubby.
And this week at school has been great. I'm not even minding the commute. I absolutely love going to the lectures and doing the readings. I'm even finding that I'm a better mom, when I'm home, than when I was home 24/7. I have more patience, I'm happier, and I'm more on top of things like chores and keeping the place tidy. Today I came home from school and made cookies and muffins.
I feel good, and I'm really happy.
The past few days have been all about newness for me. On Saturday we went out, depite James' being very sick, and bought me a new car. Yay! My Jeep's lease is up October 2nd and we really ddn't want to have to pay for the gas for me to drive it in to the city every day for a month, so we went car shopping.
I've known for a couple years now that the car I wanted was a Mazda5 so that's what I got. I had to settle for a white one, despite that being on the very bottom of my wish list, color wise. It's not that bad, really, and really like the car. Despite only being a GS it has climate control which is awesome and feels like real luxery to me.
After getting the car we had to take pity on James and come home so he could spend the next 20 hours in bed feeling horrible. By Sunday he was mostly feelng better, so we went out and timed my commute and took a tour of the campus and spent $400 on text books. Then, before we got home we bought new cell phones so we could text each other and have unlimited calling between us, and as a part of the phone deal we each got a $100 gift card for Future Shop and with that we bought a PS3.
It was a very $$$ weekend, all things considered.
Today marks the real newness, however. Today I had my orientation. I was up at 6 and not home till 4:30. It was a very long, only marginally useful, day and I'm now exhausted and will be sleeping shortly. It was also the first day of the kids at the babysitters, and Cameron handled it much better than expected and Quint walked there from school just fine.
Tomorrow at 10 I have my first class, History 260 - Pre-Confederation Canada. A guy I talked to at orientation shuddered and said it was a brutal class. Yay. I'm only on campus for 1 hour M/W/F, totally not worth the 3 hours of commuting.
It feels very weird to be back at school...it makes me feel both very young and very old at the same time.
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