Halloween

Sam, Matt and Sarah are absolutely psyched about the candy night. I am sure that for a kid Halloween is the longest day of the year. Evening just never seems to roll around like it normally does on January 16. Every second feels like a minute. Then five o clock comes around and the first toddlers come waddling around and then you know that it is time. As soon as the daylight starts to fade, you go out. After one trip around the street, the night has come and time goes by faster than a monkey tearing into a cupcake.

I personally feel like the day is just as normal as any other day and Halloween is not what I can't wait for. I'm not even looking forward to being jostled around by strangers. I personally hate it when a person in a costume comes to our door with a Halloween bag the size of Santa Claus' and demands candy, then goes and dumps the entire bag inside a car and comes out with a fresh one and continues on for more. Also when you see a university student with a costume and a bag. This should be my last Halloween and for all the Halloweens after that, I'll jut mooch off the little boys.

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Yet another Bridgette Jones Moment

I was at the grocery store the other day when I saw an acquaintance named Peter. He is renowned around the city because he makes the best orthotics. I greeted Peter. He smiled & waved & said that he was in a hurry. That was fine. We ended up in the grocery check out line behind him. I asked, "how is business?" He said, "well, it has good days & bad days." I said, "all our friends that go to you just love your work." He smiled, appreciatively. I then asked, "what is your oldest doing now - she has finished high school, right?" He said, "my youngest is finished high school."

It was then that I realized my mistake. This wasn't Peter. It was Ralph, who looks a lot like Peter. Ralph is an economist.

This leaves me with two questions.

1. Didn't he think it odd that I was calling him Peter?
2. What did he think I meant when I said that all my friends that go to him love his work?

Poor Dave

At church on Sunday our friend Dave passed us on his way to McDonald's. He is a fit looking guy without even a hint of a potbelly. He shamefacedly admitted that he goes to McDonald's 3 times per week. He tried to soften the blow for our anti-McDonald's kids by saying, "but I only eat the healthy stuff."

Matt took him aside & said, "Do you know what the ancient Roman Empire & McDonald's have in common?" Dave didn't know. Matt told him, "they are both striving for world domination." Dave's jaw dropped.

Dentist

I went to the dentist yesterday because we suspected that one of my adult teeth was loose. It turned out that that was a baby tooth, and the adult molar was coming in with the uniform approach. The baby tooth on the other side however is not loose because the adult molar underneath it doesn't exist. So they are hoping that the baby tooth just stays there.

Also there was sensitivity on the same molar on the upper row. Turns out that is going to be with me the rest of my life. Bummer.

We haven't bee getting very many comments lately. Matt has written some very interesting things about World War II and would love you to respond.

The most annoying thing about Halloween is that when you are waiting for it to come it always takes a long time. When its over you wish you could do it again. Tomorrow I will be able to say that tomorrow is Halloween I can't wait! I went to the park with the boy's today ( I did NOT take the PVC pipe) to play basket ball. The boy's didn't want me to play so I got to be the

1. referee
2. commenter
3. spare player in case someone got hurt.

There was a lot of holding the ball but that was all. They tied zero zero and nobody cried so it was a win win deal.

Sarah

Halloween

Ah, a crisp fall morning and the house is filled with the aroma of freshly made banana muffins! I can't say I don't like this morning. It is not sunny but it is not raining either and the house is quiet! (That does not happen very often.) Six more days until Halloween and it’s hard to decide if I am going to be a bride or a girl in a trench coat. What do YOU think I should be? Post a comment please.

WWII- Chapter 1 - Weapons

This is Matt. I have been studying history - World War II to be exact. This is the first chapter of my book.

Chapter 1 - Weapons

#1 The German Tanks. The tank was very famous (obviously). The Germans used it in the Blitzreig strategy. Their tanks were: Pantzer I, Pantzer II, Pantzer III, Pantzer IV, and King Tiger tank. The King Tiger tank was the worst. At the battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union, the Germans lost badly. This is because the King Tiger tank was the biggest tank. When they fired the King Tiger tank, the small Soviet T-34 tanks surrounded them quickly. The King Tiger tank would often get stuck - in rubble/mud or other obstacles. It was not useful. Soviet soldiers could easily get inside the King Tiger tank, grab the ammunition, and give it to the T-34s. Then it was one-sided from then on. The Soviets won the Battle of Kursk. The Germans didn't use the King Tiger Tanks after that.

#2 The Allied Tanks. The best tank of the war was the American M4 Sherman tank. The second best was the T-34 Soviet tank. The Allied tanks were smaller and faster. They could shoot faster too. In World War I the code name for tanks was "little Willie". You may find that a little rude but I didn't name them that! (Note to parents: just don't tell you kids about the little Willies.)

#3 Sniper Rifles. Sniper rifles were very effective in city battles - like the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Leningrad. Snipers could pick off enemy troops one by one. The snipers would hide behind rubble and sometimes even IN rubble so they wouldn't be spotted. Sometimes they used flashless gunpowder to conceal their hiding spots.

#4 Machine Guns. These were originally used in WWI and were very effective. In WWI they were carried on their backs. They had a tripod, but WWII machine guns didn't. They were just like sniper rifles, but didn't shoot as far. They were easy to shoot if an enemy was moving towards you in a direct assault. If you shot at them in this situation, you would kill a lot of them.

Ugh

My face is growing, but the retainer that I am wearing every night is stopping my teeth from adapting to my face. So now my jaw is a little bit uncomfortable. I feel like my teeth are packed together like a overstuffed can of sardines. Anyway.

Richard Simmons is possibly the funniest person I have ever seen. I went onto his website because I heard about him somewhere and I found this video. Click Here to see his website video. The first time I watched this video, I laughed. I laughed harder the second time I watched it. It got old around the tenth time around.

I don't really have much to blog about so I am going to say Adios for now

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A question

CBS is in a black void of writers block. We just cannot think of any ideas that are worth screenwriting. So we are going to put out a contest for the best idea for CBS Kids. We don't want a story, we want an idea and that is all. An example: Make a movie about the federal bureau of radish production (that idea sucks, but it's an example). And, as a prize for the best idea, we will make a movie about it and put it up on the net. The only things we don't want in terms of ideas are parodies of comedic stories. That doesn't work and will never work. Original ideas are preferred but parody suggestions are accepted and viewed as well. By the way, we are changing our company name from CBS to Four Youngest (FY). We got a letter from CBS threatening to sue if we didn't change our name. I wonder why?

So, let the game begin!

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TIME TO TURN ON THE HEAT!

In our house it is time to turn on the heat. We are trying to see how long we can go without using the heat to cut the electricity bill. We are doing pretty well until today when I woke up this morning it was the end of the line for me I get eczema on my legs when I am cold and its pretty bad right now so now I will be,

1. using two blankets

2. curling up into a ball when I sleep

3. only going outside with warm pants on

4. doing as much homeschooling in bed as I can

5. live through the winter

Mom's Day Off

I feel like giving you guy's a re account of my day. I woke up to the sound if sweet silence. But not for long as soon as I stretched out on the bed I herd a noise that horrible throbbing noise that only comes from alarm clock's that are in Katelyn's room. I thot that Katelyn was in her room and that she would turn it of or if she was not it would turn of on its own. But no it kept on throbbing and throbbing and throbbing and throbbing so I stumbled in to Katelyn's room ( which is strictly forbidden) and pressed the snooze button. Then I stumbled back into bed but when I lay down I did not feel right then I remembered the laundry! I got out of bed put my clothes on and rushed upstairs. After I helped mom put out the laundry I did my school work and after mom left I took the boys to the park. With a PVC pipe for a game this is the game

1. get Matt and Sam to close there eyes
2. push PVC pipe in ground and bury as much as you can
3. give Matt and Sam 2 hints to were the pipe is
4. let Matt and Sam try to find it
5. take turns

but when Matt's turn came he would not give us the proper hints. so I ended up dragging him home because he would not dig the pipe up. Then I told dad and dad told Matt to go get the pipe when Matt came back I was waiting for him to get the pipe he ran up the driveway and hurled it at me not what I expected

Fresh Turkey

We have made the discovery that frest turkey is much much better than frozen turkey. The flavour is magnified 10x in a fresh turkey. So we had turkey last night and potatoes and stuffing. We have had 3 turkey dinners this year. We are probably going to have some more before Christmas but if you are on a turkey hunt, you need to try out the fresh turkeys first.

I have nothing else to blog about!

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I HATE getting out of bed

Ah. Here I am after getting up to the sound of, “DAN!!!!!! TWO HUNDRED DEMERETS”. I hope you are familiar with our point system. If you do something good, you get ten points. If you do something bad, you get ten demerits. When you get two hundred points you get to play on the computer for an hour. Sammy is ruling the roost when it comes to demerits (even though he’s not aloud to give them out). He will go around the house screaming TWO HUNDRED DEMERETS at anyone who annoys him in the least. (Believe me that happens a lot.) So that is how I came to be woken up by Sam. Sam is also the one with the most points. I believe his current record is14000, give or take a zero. He never spends them unless it’s to get something at the store. He gets his points by doing times tables (yea I know seven years old, and doing times tables). He gets twenty points a times table. I think that’s a bit unfair. He makes me look like a loser. (I have only 2000 points.)

This is Matt writing. OK now that i'm through trying to log-in. mythbusters is almost here! aw darn spellcheck (it wont work)! its almost (werewolf)hhhooowwlllaweeen. its sunny. matt} -

Sadly, Dorcas died

Dorcas died yesterday. Her body was very weak after the surgery & there were complications with her kidneys and liver. So the doctors decided to put her in a medical coma. She had a heart attack (went into V-tack) and her heart was too weak. Mom & Dad waited until after dinner to tell us. (I wouldn't have been able to eat supper if I had known.)

I know that she is happy now because she is in Heaven. But I am sad because Dominic & his wife Ruth & their other 5 children are sad. It is sad that she died in Canada. It would have been nice for her to be surrounded by her family in Uganda when she died. She was a very very sweet girl.

We were somewhat comforted that our friend Eva who died in the spring will be there to welcome Dorcas to Heaven. Eva will gladly & beautifully take on the role of Dorcas' mother. That made us smile. We had fun imagining Eva (who was Polish) and Dorcas wearing Ugandan dresses & singing & dancing together with big smiles on their faces.

Dorcas made me think about how much poverty there is in Uganda - that it is much worse to be poor in Uganda. She came to Canada to have heart surgery here because it wasn't available in Uganda. In fact, they didn't even have the equipment to diagnose that her heart was damaged until she was 17.

I can't wait to see her in Heaven someday.

Bop It!

Well, our old Bop It! toy broke and we didn't have Bop It! for a while. But Sam found one at Frenchy's, begged Mom to get it and now we have another Bop It! toy. On the first day, it woke me and Dad up, it caused many tempers to go missing and it nearly drove people crazy. There was weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those are the kind of toys we like. Ones that cause pain and suffering but are still fun. Ahh. For those who don't know how it works, It tells you to do one of five things. Bop it, spin it, flick it, pull it, and twist it. You have to act on instinct. If you make a mistake or fumble, you lose. On the previous one, I got a high score of 250. That was the toy's limit to how high you can go. Basically I won. This toy is a lot harder because it is a lot faster. I plan on getting that high score.

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Bop It

Well, here I am after a long summer (and quite a bit of the fall) of not blogging. One day at Frenchy's I came across a Bop It (a toy that you push, pull, flick, twist, and bop). It is the best toy in the world. So I looked at the price - $3. Wow. Mom came over, looked at the price, and advised me not to buy it. She said the boys would just break it like the last time. (A friend of ours gave us one that the boys broke.) So I did not buy it. A few days later we were at Frenchy's again and Sam found the Bop It. Sammy's approach to mom is, "can we get it mom can we get it mom can we get it mom?" So after that mom said yes. But in order to play with it we had to read two books each. I was the first to do it. Sam was next. Dan and Matt just used it without reading their books.


Sarah

Dorcas & Heart Surgery Update

Dorcas' heart surgery had to be delayed because her heart was so weak. The surgery was done this morning. Previous to the operation they thought they were going to have to replace one of her heart valves. But when they got in there the surgeon felt that he could repair her valve instead of replacing it. Also she had to be put on a heart by-pass machine while they worked on her heart. (In other words, her heart was not working during the surgery). They had feared that her heart would not start again after the surgery. But it did! So she is in recovery now. The post-surgery period is equally important to the surgery. So thanks for praying & feel free to pray more for this time. Her dad Dominic is very very tired but in good spirits. He had faith all the way along that God would heal her.

Hurrah!

Yellow-Jacket Hits Black Jacket

Yesterday we had a nice picnic in honour of Katelyn's 16th birthday. She isn't turning 16 until the 13th but we had reasons to celebrate on the 8th. Anyway, we had a great meal of greek salad and hummus and other juicy stuff. A big hit was the blueberry pomegranate juice. Great. So after we had a delicious meal we went for a hike. The Four Youngest played a game where three kids count to 30 and one kid runs ahead. After 30 seconds we would run and if we passed his hiding spot, then he wins. If we find him before we pass him, we win. It was Matt's turn to run ahead. We counted. Nobody was really in the spirit of the game by then, so after counting to 30 we just walked instead of running. After 5 minutes of walking and still not finding him, we began to get worried. We were thinking he must have taken a wrong turn and ended up on Purcell's Cove Road. That made us think of him running down the road frantically and bawling. Anyway, it wasn't too cool. We decided he probably just fell back and will catch up soon. We went all the way back to the van where Dad was waiting. We asked him if he saw Matt. On cue, Dad calls, "Matt!" and Matt jumps out from behind the bushes off in the distance and yells, "I Win!" Well. That was the end of that adventure. I was tired, so I got some of that lovely juice. I had a mouthful when I felt something move inside my mouth. Frantically I spit out all the juice onto Sarah's beautiful black coat. A yellow-jacket climbs out of all the slop. I was this close (just imagine a thumb and forefinger almost touching) to being stung on the inside of my mouth. I (of course) apologized to Sarah for potentially ruining her coat (I'm pretty sure the juice washed out) and then mentally noted that in my life hall of fame. The most interesting that happened to me was eating a fish eyeball. Now that experience is in second place. Having a wasp in my mouth is definitely in first.

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Thanksgiving Weekend Hullabaloo

1. We had a busy weekend so we decided to have thanksgiving dinner on Friday night. We bought a fresh turkey instead of frozen this year. It was so much more flavourful ... I don't think we can go back to frozen turkeys again.

2. On Saturday night we went to a SMU hockey game. Our team won easily - so easily that even the players got bored. Our kids & the kids of the hockey coaches made up for their boredom by climbing up & down through the empty stands & playing tag, while screaming. No one seemed to mind.

3. Today was the beginning of "Celebrate Katelyn's 16th birthday week." We made a fancy picnic of hummus and carrots, bean salad, greek salad, & amazing goat cheese covered in cinnamon & cranberries. Then we went hiking along a narrow path right by the ocean. Ron stayed with our picnic stuff because his back hurts when he hikes. The kids decided to spice things up by playing hide & seek along the narrow path. Suddenly on the way back Sam said, "Mommy. I can't find Matt. He was hiding but that was a long time ago." I wasn't sure what to do - had I seen him go ahead of us? My full stomach had induced a semi-coma & I just couldn't remember. We decided to keep moving & see if Ron had seen him. We got back to Ron but there was no Matt in sight. I asked Ron if he had seem Matt. He yelled for Matt. Fifty feet away Matt emerged from behind a tree & said, "I won! You didn't find me." After all that excitement it was time for Torte. Katelyn has recently given up gluten because it gives her eczema. So I had made this flourless torte - 12 oz of chocolate, 1.5 c of chocolate, 3/4 c. orange juice, 2 Tbsp. of Grand Marnier & 6 eggs. It is very very rich & heavy & decadent & delicious. I poured a sauce of sugar & pureed raspberries over the top. So yummy. Then we packed up & came home because Ron had work to do.

4. But wait! We weren't finished with playing. I grabbed some work that I could do in the park, Katelyn grabbed her homework & we headed off to another park where the kids played grounders. Just as we were leaving two men & a little boy came to the park. One man was explaining to the other that they had taken out the swing set because they decided it wasn't safe anymore. He said, "everything has to be so safe these days. Pretty soon we won't have any playgrounds at all." I said, "Yes. We had all that old playground equipment as kids & we were OK. The man said jokingly, "well, we are the ones that survived."

Hockey Player holds Guiness World Record

I asked Sam what kinds of things he talked to the hockey players on the bus about. He said he asked them about Guiness World Records - a favourite topic around our house. Sam said, "One of them holds a Guiness World Record." I asked what record he held - figuring it would be something hockey-related. Sam said, "he holds the record for stabbing someone with a ski." Then, trying to make sense of it all, Sam shrugged and added, "but the guy was old & almost dead anyway."

Abarba-hoodlums

There is a new playground in our area. It is a great little place because we can get to it on a bike path. This is very attractive to me because since the bike accident I am timid to have the kids ride their bikes near traffic. The playground was built by Home Depot. The little sign says, "our mission is to have a playground close enough to kids' homes so that every Canadian kid can play."

The playground is near an ice rink & today there was snow dumped at the edge of the playground. The kids thought this was great. They made mini-snow men, had little snowball fights, etc. Suddenly we saw a 70 ish man yelling & pointing his finger at the kids. I called out, "is there a problem with the snow?" (What could the problem be? Were they planning to re-use it?). He didn't hear me but moved closer to the kids & started yelling at them not to play with the snow. I ran over & said, "sir, is there a problem with the snow?". He said, "I don't want them playing with the snow on the playground." I couldn't really understand ... I thought he was afraid the wood chip "floor" would get wet. I said, "but it will rain". He said, "yes, but it isn't raining now." I said, "I'm sorry sir. I don't understand." He said, "they were putting snow on the slides & they made them wet." I asked the kids later about this & they hadn't put snow on the slides. But they were GUILTY of playing with the snow on the playground. He then turned to me and said sternly, "we have 24 hour cameras on this area." I suddenly got it. First, he assumed we were hoodlums. Second, he had been looking at the security cameras & saw something that wasn't really there (kids putting snow on slides - though I don't see why this would be so bad since it was a sunny day & snow would evaporate).

We left because both the kids & I were quite upset. I don't think I could have said anything to the man to convince him that we weren't hoodlums. It is unfortunate that this volunteer is the one manning the security cameras. I don't think Home Depot had in mind an unwelcoming space where kids get yelled at for playing with snow that is left right beside the playground area.

In 2005 I was given a game set for my birthday. It had the following games in it. Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Chinese Checkers, Tic Tak Toe, Pick Up Sticks, and Parcheesi. All of this was in a wooden shelf with a volume of about 8x8x8. Nowadays, the only thing left was the chess board. The problem with that was that the board was glued onto the top of the shelf. I didn't like that very much and for 2 years I had a giant shelf that I couldn't throw out because there was a chessboard that I liked. Then I lost the chess pieces and really had no reason to keep the shelf. But I did. And then I found some chess pieces at a store and I got Dads plyers and I ripped the chessboard off the shelf. It came off easy and now I have a nice wooden chessboard. I can play chess again.

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Ron the Roadie & his sidekicks Matt & Sam

Ron just started a volunteer job with the hockey team at the university. He went on the road with them this weekend. (Should we call him a roadie now?) He had a lot of fun & saw some good hockey. On Sunday we were able to go to the game too. I thought this game was good hockey but one of the players explained that it wasn't - the other team was not the calibre of our team & our team won quite easily. We liked meeting some of the hockey players that weren't able to dress because of injuries. And Sarah got to go into the press box. After the game Ron took Sam & Matt on the hockey team bus while Sarah, Dan & I drove home in the van. You can imagine what happened. The boys were a big hit. Ron said there were roars of laughter as they traded jokes with the players all the way home. The boys ate the hockey teams' pizza & our boys shared 4 dozen cookies I had sent along. They came bouncing into the house on cloud nine. Sam is sleeping it off (it is nearly 10 am) but Matt was his usual early riser self. There are many more games to come & we will be there - the Super Fans.

Dorcas & Heart Surgery

Our friend Dorcas (age 17) is back in Halifax for heart surgery. You may remember me talking about her before ... she is from Uganda & had a very large hole in her heart ... it went undetected until last year. That was repaired a year ago but now she needs another surgery. She had trouble on the flight from Uganda to Heathrow, U.K. & was actually admitted to hospital in London, England for heart failure. But they managed to make their flight to Canada - again a bit touch & go. Fortunately our friend Wally, who is a doctor, was travelling with Dorcas & her dad.

So this morning she goes for pre-op testing & tomorrow morning at 10 am she will have heart surgery. Please pray whatever comes to mind - you can imagine what this is like for her, her dad who is with her, & her mom & 5 siblings at home in Uganda. Our friend Camille will be doing the surgery - pray for her too. She is quite pregnant & having a lot of back pain. The operation will be long & of course Camille will have to stand up for all of it. Dorcas will be convalescing for a month.Camille would consider the post-op period as important as the surgery period.