Christmas time in Abarbaland

This is a picture of Ron & I on Boxing Day. We were meeting a friend for coffee on the waterfront ... but hadn't figured on all the coffee shops being closed. We are inside the Ferry Terminal, which was open. It was COLD.

This is Katelyn doing a little modeling today ... modeling her mittens which she made over Christmas. She is submitting them to a knitting magazine for publication. We are at Sandwich Point, overlooking the Atlantic.

Dan & Sarah at Sandwich point ... on top of a Memorial to the "Herring Cove Rowers" who beat the Boston rowers in a competition in the 1800's. The Memorial looks deceivingly like a rock pile suitable for kids to climb on.

Ah ... this CD caused a lot of arguments. On Christmas Day we started a discussion on the greatest band of all time. Dan claimed it was a thrasher band called "Billy Talent" - very emo, very smash your guitars on stage while not wearing a shirt. Ron claimed it was the Eagles - whose greatest hits CD he received for Christmas. He made the kids listen to the Eagles, even claiming that one of their songs was prophetic. This morphed into a lively discussion on the best guitarist of all time, the best drummer of all time, etc. Our Christmas guest Kenny who is normally very quiet had quite strong opinions about this. We watched Youtube videos of the "contestants" and debated it until midnight on Christmas Day.

This is our good friend John, the coffee date on Boxing Day. We've known John since 1997 & really adore him. If you are single & looking for a great guy ... e-mail me. In real life he doesn't have the gigantic shadow on his face.

This is Kenny, our Christmas guest. He's from Bahamas, where they eat macaroni & ham for Christmas. He said, "at home (Bahamas) its winter right now, man - only 29C." He brought a Bahamian Christmas dessert - kind of like a pancake studded with starfruit & served with a plum pudding sauce.

Over Christmas Sarah taught Sam how to breakdance. This is Sam doing a move called "Baby Freeze" Sarah got DVD called "Breakdancing step by step" for Christmas which has been well used.

Melanie came over & Sarah taught HER how to break dance too. Melanie was a quick learner.

This is a picture of Ron with a goatee ... he bet Susana that a postcard she sent from Uganda at a kind of "unofficial" post office wouldn't get to Canada. If Ron won, Susana would have to move here to work with us again (I was cheering for Ron). If Susana won (and the postcard arrived), Ron would have to grow some facial hair. He kept it long enough to get his picture taken, then shaved. When he grows a full beard, he looks exactly like a terrorist. I'm absolutely serious.

I did it!! Finally.

I have often watched men at the beach wearing speedos and wished I had my very own pair. Marsha and Katelyn always make fun of said men - which I took as a signal that me-in-a-speedo would never happen. Well I was out doing some Christmas shopping the other day and what should I happen by but a rack of sleek looking speedos. Blue speedos, black speedos and even white speedos. I just had to try on a pair. They looked sleek. They hugged my body Oh so nicely. I looked in the mirror and knew that I just had to get them and put up with whatever razzing came my way. I selected the blue pair because black is cliche and white is too avant garde for me.

When I brought them home I confessed to Marsha what I had done and there were a lot of giggles. We decided to head over to the pool to try them out and see if they made swimming more enjoyable for me. The truth is, I hate swimming. I don't like getting into cool water. Plus Chlorine bothers my eyes. But with my speedo I imagined that I would actually feel better about it.

Nobody seemed to disturbed about that I was wearing. So I jumped in. I felt great! I could dive under the water and see the whole pool without getting any chlorine in my eyes. The only problem was that there was this very large woman bounding around in the pool and I could see her in High Definition. She is a subject in my nightmares now. Here is a picture of my speedos:

Wheelchairs & Paddywagons

We are celebrating tonight because Katelyn finished school today for two weeks! Hurrah! On Wednesday she was sitting in her Yearbook office wheelchair. Her friend Cam came in & said, "when are we taking the wheelchair to your house?" Katelyn had been thinking the same thing. The Abarba-kids have been talking about this wheelchair since September. They need it for a film they are making. But wouldn't it be rude to take the wheelchair out of the school? What if someone needed it? They came up with a plan: borrow it during Christmas holidays.
Katelyn & Cam hung around until all the teachers were gone. They figured they probably wouldn't mind, but just in case. When they had the "all clear", they slipped out a side door. But there was one problem. It had snowed. A LOT. The teachers were all brushing off their cars. They saw Katelyn & said good naturedly, "Hey Katelyn, what are you doing with that wheelchair?" Katelyn casually told the truth. "I'm taking it home to make a movie." They nodded agreeably. Nothing surprises people of our village when it comes to Abarba-activities. It was hard going - wheelchairs of the 1960's vintage are not made for the offroad trail that Katelyn & Cam take home from school. Cam tried to wheel it home while sitting in it - but it didn't really work. Our neighbours looked out their window & Kellie turned to Andy & said, "why is Katelyn pushing a wheelchair down the street?" There was much laughter, dancing & celebration when the wheelchair arrived. Look for a movie soon.

Ah ... the Abarbanels ... never a dull moment.
But wait! Today we saw the police in front of our neighbours' house. There were 2 cruisers, a paddy wagon (sp?), a SUV type truck & an unmarked police car. There was also a camera crew from CBC. How exciting. We watched & watched. Then we saw an officer going door to door. We tried to clean up our house quickly & changed out of our dirty clothes, combed our hair, and turned on the coffee pot. It is not everyday a police officer comes over. The knock came. I opened the door. Now, what exactly is the protocol in this situation. "Hello Officer. Come right in?" I didn't know so I just said "Hi". He asked, "would you mind if I come in? There is a camera crew out there and you might not want to be on the news." I said, "Come on in". He said our neighbour had reported suspicious behaviour and they were wondering if we had seen anything suspicious. We asked, "what would you consider suspicious?" He said, "a car speeding down the road around 3:10 p.m." We hadn't seen anything suspicious. Katelyn said, "I left the school at 2:55 & got home at 3:12. There were no speeding cars." The officer asked how Katelyn could be so precise. She replied that she always timed herself. He took down our names, especially Katelyn, the witness to the nothing strangeness of our street. Later Kate called the aforementioned Cam & asked if he remembered anything suspicious. Cam said he had seen a red SUV speeding up the street next to ours. This could help the police! They had left us their card! But better still, they were at our neighbours' house. We waited outside for a long time in the bitter cold. But we didn't begrudge it because we were helping the police. The door opened. We lunged towards the police officer & shared our tip. His reply, "Nah. It is small car we are looking for, not a red SUV."

SLEEP

I have a problem. No matter what time I go to bed I never go to sleep until twelve, then I wake up at ten in the morning with some one yelling at me to get up. I think I might have to start waking up at four so I will fall asleep when I go to bed. Now to get an alarm clock that's loud enough to wake me up but not Katelyn through the wall hmmm I can probably use a watch.
What to do with the four hours of time between 4 and 8 read? draw ? school? that's all
provided it works.

groggily
Sarah

Bits & Bytes

Lots of funny little things going on around our house.

1. Sam learned to read. He is reading this over my shoulder & pointed out, "I learned to read a long time ago." Yes, that's true. But now he is reading proper big chapter books - like Holes. He skipped the entire "beginning readers" stage & went straight to novels. He reads while sitting by the heater in the kitchen, while hanging upside down off the couch, while straddled in a door jam 6 feet off the ground, on the toilet. Any place is a good place to read.

2. Kate & I dropped some Christmas letters at the main Canada Post plant. I lived here for 10 years before someone told me about it. They have a big circular driveway. You drive around & in the middle is a kind of metal chute. You roll down your window, put your letters in & it goes straight onto the plant floor. It is all windowed & so we are driving & we both have our eyes glued to the work going on, with excited shouts of "they have the parcels in cages" and "the workers look like Oompa Loompas!" Suddenly I looked behind me & there was a long line-up of cars waiting for us to quit gawking & move on. It was one of those unexpected joyful moments.

3. I was at Bayers Lake doing my Urban Warrior work of getting all those odd foods people with massive food allergies use (Ezekiel bread in 3 varieties, cream of rice cereal, tofu, Almond Breeze) I came outside with my groceries & it was hurricane like - very high winds that blew people's groceries out of their carts, rain that soaked you in 2 minutes, etc. I opened the sliding door of the van and it FELL OFF on one side. I thought, "this doesn't seem good. I might have to call Ron on my non-existent cell phone". But, in a moment of brilliance, I picked up the door & kind of pushed it back on, using a "up and in" motion. When I got home the conversation went like this.

Marsha(casually): "The sliding door fell off the van while I was at Bayers Lake."

Ron: "I told you not to open the door until I fixed it."

Marsha:(trying to sound casusal) I assumed you HAD fixed it."

So then he did fix it - except it needs a tiny part. Let's just say I won't be opening the side door for awhile.

4. Once things slow down for Christmas around here, I will be using my time to:

a. clean - which I have not done much of all semester. It used to bother me but 5 kids have beat any clean-gene out of me (and I'm glad).
b. try to find 3 small Christmas gifts I bought in September in a "reduced for quick sale" pile - I put them away in a safe hiding place, so safe & hidden that now I can't find them.
c. look for Ron's orthotics, which he wants to wear after a 5 year sabbatical from them. I am SURE I didn't throw them out - but where can they be? The kids call me the "anti-pack rat" because I am always throwing things out.

Love

I have a great story for you.

As I may have blogged before, I babysit sometimes. And my favorite family (to babysit) is the one that consists of 4 kids, Caleb, Isaac, Abby and David. One night, just before I had to send the Caleb and Isaac to bed, Caleb asked, "who's your favorite female singer?" I often joke around with them when they ask me questions. For instance, one time Caleb asked me, "why do you babysit here anyway? I'm only 3 years younger than you." A very valid question, and he wasn't trying to be offensive at all. I replied, "If an axe wielding maniac bursts through the door and starts waving his axe around, threatening to dice you all into mincemeat, I'll be there to call 911." The priceless, "I-can't-believe-my-babysitter-doesn't-have-a-spine" look came across his face for a few seconds before he realized that I was joking.

Anyway, back to the story.

"Dan, who's your favorite female singer?"
"Celine Dion." (the priceless, "Oh-no-my-babysitter-must-be-a-nutcase look came across his face)
"Celine Dion?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
"Yes, I love her music."
"I don't believe you... Is Celine Dion really your favorite?"
And so on. He's still wondering if I'm pulling his leg. I decided to make what I said come true as a giant joke. I am a fan of Celine Dion on Facebook. I have dedicated an entire third of my wall space to Celine Dion merchandise including a shirt and 3 CDs, two of which are called The Colour of My Love and Let's Talk About Love, featuring hit singles such as The Power of Love, When I Fall in Love, Love Doesn't Ask Why, No Living Without Loving You, Lovin' Proof, The Colour of My Love, Love is on the Way, Just a Little Bit of Love, Where is the Love, I Hate You When I Love You, Let's Talk About Love and Love Can Move Mountains. I'm not joking around, I actually am now the proud owner of all these songs, plus a bunch in French and a few without the word Love in it. Now I just need to memorize all the lyrics and get an autographed poster. The music isn't actually all that bad, and she's beautiful. I think I'm actually a fan now.

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Hello Its been a while since I wrote a blog so here are a few things I've done ranging from last year to now

1. took a pottery course ( old news)
2. took an art class it was bad
3. gave ten inches of my hair to cancer
4. took up crocheting, knitting and sewing with a machine
5. took a breakdancing course.
6. grew to be 4 inches taller then mom
7. became allergic to milk
8. became allergic to tartrazine. My throat will close up so I have to have an epi-pen.

Sarah

Matt & the CBC

Matt has been saying at bedtime, "I don't want to listen to you read to us. I'm just going to go to bed." I thought this was very strange behaviour. So one night after I read to Sam, I checked on him. The lights were out, he was in his bed & there were pillows over his head. I pulled off the pillows to kiss him and figured out his mysterious utterances: he was listening to the radio. I asked what he was listening to: "Well, I'm waiting to hear an update on the situation in Mumbai, and then I am going to listen to Ideas". It turns out he has become a CBC junkee - he listens to the Current when he wakes up, doesn't care for Q (actually we ALL hate Q) & thinks the Debaters are hilarious.

Sam & the Migraine

We had our annual Christmas parade yesterday. Ron & I were out, but the kids went and somehow joined the parade - right between the last float & Santa Clause. Ron asked, "did you twirl a baton or something?" Nope. They just walked along & waved to the crowd. Afterwards Sarah got her picture taken with the mayor. I was shocked the first time I saw the mayor at our Christmas parade. I looked at him and said, "hey, are you the mayor?" I am so-o-o tactful.

Afterwards Sam got a migraine. I am always looking for causes. Was it the massive amount of candy canes & hard candy people gave him? Then why didn't he get a migraine on Hallowe'en? At any rate, he needed dark, he needed quiet and he needed sleep. When we checked on him later, he was sleeping on his back with the garbage can beside his mouth - he wasn't taking any chances. He is still sleeping.