Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces

and at the cottage, life is near perfect

...ohh, the weather will be cold, predicted the naysayers when they heard we were to be in kelowna in mid july.

kiss my jlo folks, it is brilliant here. the kids are tanned and happy, and i, who have managed to read five books and attend two garage sales (not bad when you are in cottage country!) scored four danielle steele books for 1.00 and have read them all. i also read a peter lawford biography, so my trash level is pretty high.

so why am i typing when the cottage is so obviously computer free? BECAUSE I AM IN KELOWNA WAITING FOR LITA"S PLANE TO COME IN. it is embarrassing to tell you how excited i am to see her, but i am going to anyway. i am thrilled, smiling and even washed my hair for her. how i have missed talking and rolling my eyes with her. the kids are ecstatic and very grumpy that they have to wait until morning to see her.

thresholds that have been crossed in the almost two weeks since we have been in paradise (it has rained once for those of you keeping track,,,and we loved being indoors)...
- sela and i jumped off the dock together

- sela jumped off the second tier of the lighthouse!

- we have seen owls, bunnies and beavers (ha ha)

the kids arent complete water animals, but that is okay,

they have been terrible at times too, but that is to be expected. and you would all be so impressed with the junk i am letting them eat. and of course i am eating it too (lead by example, churchill!) and as a result, i rather resemble churchill in profile.

our last days with charmaine were wonderful. how i love that girl.

i am starting to think about heading back to hong kong, which unbelievably we do in 9 days. wow. where did time go. i am trying not to get depressed. wish me luck. what do i have to look forward to??? remind me?

bliss

i haven't written, and it's not because i haven't had access to the internet.

but we have been so busy.

it has been wonderful. the girls and i have been visiting with charmaine and her kids two or three different places a day, one of them always a playground. (a small side effect is that i am sick of swings). we have been to the beach, springbank park, two spalsh pools, various playgrounds, port stanley, a railroad trip, the cinema (wall*e and kung fu panda), and garage sales!

unbelievably...the kids have gotten along really well. i can't believe it. if my kids had to share their home, parents attention and toys for a whole week, they would be very cross, i suspect. but mac and maddy have been so accommodating. charmaine and i look at each other and are realise we are pretty lucky.

charles arrived yesterday (poor fellow) and the boys immediately ran to the atv's charmaine and jim have, and they jumped on and began driving around. what a welcome! sebastian and mac went canoeing with their daddies after dinner, while charmaine and i were in charge of putting the youngest four to bed.

the girls were thrilled to be reunited with their male counterparts, and i was greeted with "hi tess!" from jasper and "hi mummy, i want to ride that" from sebastian. i feel so necessary to their lives.

it is good to be with charmaine, and it is tough to look across the room and know i won't be doing this for a while. it was good to have jim and charles finally meet, i just wish that charles was a little less stressed right now. the boys were apparently not on their best behaviour while they were in toronto and that led to some hurtful comments and tough times for charles. oh well, the boys have been relatively good while they have been here (i say relatively because jasper got up from bed four times last night, and then in the middle of the night, he joined us. all very bad behaviour).

so i apologise for the silence. it has been so hectic, but it has been so great. the kids have loved being here. in the house, they can run up and down the steps, jumping is allowed, two long yogurts at a time if they like, we have baked banana bread, and there are always fun excursions planned. we went to an organic farm and picked veggies one day.

we're all tired at the end of the day.

tomorrow, we leave for kelowna. stage three of the holiday begins.

will post more soon. again, apologies.

xo

compromise - and its all good

where did i leave off ?? sunday?

monday was a big day because it marked jasper, sela and carys' first day of day camp. the minute i knew we were coming to toronto, i had looked around for daycamps. when you don't drive, you need a daycamp. last time we were here it was embarrassing how much we depended on others, and after a lifetime of bumming rides and being dependent on others timetables, i have a wish that my children don't suffer from that, and that when we visit, other people don't have to adjust their lives too much to cater to us.

my SIL looked around for us, and i looked around, and i found what i thought to be an excellent day camp put on by the city of toronto, and even better, it was within walking distance of doug's place. so every morning, i wouldn't need to ask people to drive the kids to day camp, i could just walk them there myself. YAY! while there were some who were really apprehensive about the programme and the facilities, i prayed like mad and had a really good feeling about it. it was a day long program, starting at 9am and ending at 4pm.

9am the next morning, we walked up to the correct location and signed the kids in, were shown to their cubbies, and met their instructor, an ECE graduate and full time city worker, kyle blackman. what a fantastic guy. obviously gifted with children, he bent right down and chatted wth the kids right away. there were other kids coming in, so i took them all to the bathrooms, which were impeccable. another good sign, i thought.

the doors opened, the kids ran in, i waved goodbye and they waved. no one ran over to give me a hug, but they did blow kisses.

i was hoping to spend the day looking for books with penny, but the day got delayed and we left the house late. living in a city like this really makes me say...if only i could drive and really makes me frustrated that i cannot!

we had an okay lunch, and a very very quick browse for books, and then a really fast pick up of groceries, and then zipped back to pick up the kids, who came racing out. they'd had a wonderful day! and i smiled. YAY!

we got back to the house and then boom, it was time to start working on dinner. penny made most of it, and then keith came and did the bbq'ing. i just made dessert and was the right hand woman, and did a lot of washing and clearing up it seemed. i was in the kitchen a lot. doug's girlfriend marnie and her granddaughter, phoebe came for dinner, and it was fun. i like marnie. she is savvy, very well informed, and a lot of laughs.

the next day was canada day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA! we spent the day on the boat, and then later had a bbq, celebrating cousin galen's birthday and charles' birthday which is later this month. we didn't leave the island until 7pm, which did not bode well...so many late nights! of course my kids are demanding that they don't go to sleep until it gets dark...this is the problem of living so close to the equator. the sun sets by 7pm and the cranky kids get all demanding that they don't sleep until it is dark. another reason never to take them to yellowknife. can you imagine them in that northern summer sun?

sebastian slept over at galen's, they slept in a tent. i guess the fireworks kept them up for quite a bit of the night but otherwise, it was a good evening!

the next day, anne, marnie and i went to lunch at the restaurant at the top of the ROM. it was a huge disaster. pricy and pathetic options and puny. when i saw my goat cheese salad entree i said, "couldn't they have added three more arugala leaves and made a round 20?" i mean, folks, this was BAD. and the cost! three of us, no drinks, one appetiser, three entrees, no pellegrino, etc...over $110. needless to say, under the tip category, i wrote, "GOOD LUCK". really.

but it was a good story and we had lots of laughs. the snippy little waiter just added to it. he was ridiculous.

thursday night, anne, charles and i went out for dinner with her friend christopher to a divine restaurant called on the fifth. fantastic. a great rooftop place. pricy, but worth it...go go go !

friday, we had a day that i call just about perfect. there were some blips, but overall, a perfect perfect day. we went to centre island, where there is an amusement park, and the kids rode rollercoasters, (jasper sat wtih me and burst out crying and plunged his head into my hands and prayed the entire time), rode cable cars, trains, live ponies, froggie hoppers, swan boats, log boats, mini cars...oh it was a fantastic day. i bought the kids little candy rings to make the wait in one lineup seem shorter..sometime i am a smart mum! it was an expensive day, but hey, that's what it's all about.and then, tired and tanned, i decided we hadn't had enough...lets go to CHUCKIE CHEESE! the kids were ecstatic and cousin bronwyn was so jealous she begged off going to the cottage to come to CC with us! it was great to have her there and she got me hooked on a game where you have to choose briefcases with monetary values in them. GREAT GAME. the pizzas we bought were terrible, but it was a fun evening, we had a great great time.

and saturday, while doug, penny and bronwyn left for the cottage at sparrow's fart, i asked charles to delay his departure for a while...i wanted the kids to experiment a real canadian event...GARAGE SALES!

charles agreed and we just drove around the area, where there were plenty. and i bought a bag of my little ponies for $3, two light sabres for $4, a life jacket for $5, a new franklin book for .25, and a few other things. a great day. then the boys left, and it was the girls and i. we walked up to the corner grocer, where they selected a dinner roll, chocolate milk and candy bars for dinner, and then we went to the dollar store where they chose new barrettes. we went home and i gave them pedicures, they played with their new ponies while i packed, and then i made dinner and we watched cinderella infront of the television with dinner. we had showers, into pajamas, and then boom, we were in bed. i finished the book i was reading (WHILE I WAS GONE, by SUE MILLER, excellent). then it was morning.

i made breakfast, i took them to the park and we played adn watched dog training classes. it is a hot cloudless day. a beautiful one that i wish the girls will remember. there are so many things about this summer i want them to remember. the feeling of family of being loved by so many people. on the way home, after drinking from the water fountain (still a novelty for them), we blew dandilion fluff into the sky and made wishes, and they picked clover "here mummy, a beautiful flower for you" and handed it to me. such a great morning.

as we walked back into doug's yard, i pulled a deck chair into the yard and a long yarstick and told the girls to stand on the terrace. there were two items stuck in the tree, and i wanted to get them down. one, a styrofoam rocket of sebastian's. the second, a ride on toy (not sure, don't ask). well, it took only four tries and i got them both out. YAY MUMMY! and carys looked at me and said,

"mummy, i am so proud of you."

honestly, i felt so proud of me when she said that! it was like the other day when jasper looked over at me as i was reading him a book and said, "mummy, i love you so much." i love that my kids know these words. if they make me feel so wonderful, i wonder the impact they have on their tender developing selves?

and here i am writing while they play ponies ($3 garage sale ponies i might add) and i go off to prepare lunch.stage one of our summer is almost over.

bye for now.

hello again...charles is off catching up with some old friends so here am i.

friday night was the annual summer ball at the rcyc. i told you that i lugged my new red frock across the pacific, and i have to say, it was probably a mistake. i was one of the more overdressed people at the ball, not that overdressed is a bad thing or my dress was particularly showy. it was just that more people wore cocktail type dresses. i should have worn a chinese top and a long velvet skirt and orchids in my hair. (i now have the "POB" hairdo...looks okay).

i was really tired, so before the ball i took a nap and charles and anne took the kids to the playground. kids had a blast. then there was a bit of a frantic time when keys were lost and something else had been forgotten and needed to be delivered, but we managed!

it was a great evening. charles' dad is the dancing king and marnie, his companion, is no slouch on the floor herself, so they were out shaking their stuff most of the night, and looking fantastic. charles and i were heroes at our table, because we won a bottle of wine for the table by correctly answering the 8 multiple choice questions.

charles and i danced quite a bit, but were home by midnight, or 1am. i think 1am.

the next day was a family bbq at charles' cousin bob's place. one thing i really like about charles' family is the effort they make to stay in touch. twice a year they have these gettogethers, and everyone comes. it is really impressive.

bob and jay have this super pool and hot tub, and the kids were in there, and later, so were their parents! the food was divine.

as the afternoon waned on, the young kids went upstairs to watch shrek. about 30 minutes into th emovie, charles' neice, bronwyn came out and said, "there is something wrong with jasper, he keeps scratching". charles said, "oh that's just jasper" (which is what i would have normally said), but my mummy siren went off and i went to see jasper, and the sight that greeted me was actually quite shocking.

he had been resting on the sofa, and someone had pulled a blanket overtop him to make him more comfy. unfortunately, it was the cat's blanket and jasper is allergic to cats.

one eye was swollen shut. the other was red. he had white raised boils along his wrist, neck and behind his knees. his breathing was raspy.

i quickly gave him some ventolin and bricanyl and his other inhaler, and some warm water. kept him outside. took off his shirt. he really looked vile.

about one hour later, we headed home.

the next day, we went to another pool party, this time hosted by charles' long term friend tim and his divine wife brenda. these are seriously great people. it was a super party and we were very sorry to leave. brenda had the party catered, but she had made all the food herself and it would have been rude of me not to eat it, right? it was just fantastic. fricking fantastic!

so, that was sunday. we came home, again, late, and the kids had their third late night in a row. they had slept through the night saturday evening, but what does that mean when they are getting to bed at 9pm and are used to going to sleep at 7.30? such wickedness.

oh boy, today i was in lulu lemon...a girl has to look good, right? remind me to tell you why when i get back...

xo

survival

we are in toronto. the worst of the jetlag is over and we are doing really well.

i spent today out on the water on doug's (FIL's) boat, and although i did nothing, i am tired, so this long overdue post will be a short one.

HAPPY CANADA DAY.

the night before we were meant to leave hong kong, i took my suitcases down to andrea's. we held the "semifinals" of the summer suitcase there, where i pulled out every single item i was planning on taking and determined if it had the talent or was necessary for the trip. we managed to shave down quite a few items from the kids suitcase and from my own.

while there, we got the news that a typhoon was descending upon hong kong. a typhoon eight. andrea, teacher that she is, began crossing her fingers, as if the typhoon eight signal is raised at 8am, there is no school that day.

at 11pm, the typhoon three signal was replaced by typhoon eight. by midnight the wind was really blowing. i went to sleep and rested fitfully.

by 6am, the typhoon eight was still up, and andrea, her children and mine were euphoric. andrea sent a message inviting the kids down to play if we wanted to get them out of our hair while doing last minute packing. we decided to divide and conquer, so adam came up to our place, while i took the triplets down to andrea and chad's where we drank endless cups of tea and started mentally packing for andrea. it was a good morning. the typhoon signal was lowered to three around 11.30am.

the flight was on, but likely delayed. ths was not good news as we had a connector flight in vancouver.

we ate a final lunch with adam, pulled the luggage down to the car, loaded the car and the airport car (thank you amex) up, and headed off....goodbye 122!!

at the airport we got through no problem, and sat in the cathay airport lounge for as long as i could tolerate it. and then it was just too embarrassing to have the kids racing around while reading of delayed flights, so i took the kids fora  walk while charles relaxed for a bit.

our flight was called 20 minutes late, and we sat on the ground, not moving for 90 minutes.

needless to say, we missed our vancouver connector flight.

the flight itself was good. the kids watched horton hears a who a few times, and loved it, and then slept. i watched a few bits of tv, and one of my fave movies, MARS ATTACKS. i read a bit of a new book.

welcome to vancouver.

the worst part of flying is filling in time. the kids were so tired and we had a four hour layover. we were all tired and they were truculent and we weren't parenting to the best of our abilities. thankfully, the majority of those people will never see us again and we boarded the flight to toronto, plugged in the portable dvd players, and were off.

we landed in toronto, no problems, collected our luggage, doug and carolyn (SIL) were there ready for us, and quickly we got to doug's place. pajamas on and were in bed within 45 minutes of our midnight arrival.

unfortunatlely, the boys awoke two hours later.

the next few hours were grim, charles got up from 2.30-4.30 and i took the 5.45-onwards crew. charles was out somewhere, and somehow the lines of communication got crossed and it was thought everyone was having dinner at doug's place that night. i was just planning on having tortellini and sauce (both store bought thank you very much), and throwing the kids to bed, but suddenly it was a longer issue. anyway, my sil made half the dinner, i made the other half, and we sat down and i made it through the dinner. the kids weren't so stellar. but they managed.

more soon...friday was the ball. i have been walking about 10k.

sorry for the silence, but there will be more soon. it has been full on, lots of things have been planned for me but it should be a bit quieter now. xo