My Weekend, In Short

So, here's Ella waiting impatiently for Friday's pizza baking inside. I wasn't able to capture it, but she was actually licking the stove!

Also on Friday, we had a little gathering of some friends, Jaime, Nolan, Darryl and Marsha. A little bit of pizza, popcorn, strawberries, pringles and a game of Cranium and it was a party. Before the partying got under way, Nolan and Jaime read a bedtime story to Lily. You remember Nolan, the single, Flower Creations guy? Why does he always make it into my blogs? I think that he really likes the publicity.

Today, Sunday, Christy came over after Church for a special craft with Lily, St. Patrick's Day pins. It involved painting, gluing, and most importantly, glitter glue. Perfect for a 4 year old. While they were waiting for the paint to dry, they made green hand prints on the newspaper.

Lately

Here's what's been going on lately. Mom has been at Baycrest Hospital now for two weeks. I think that everyone is finding the hospital really convenient to our place. It is only an 8 minute walk, verses walking to Yorkdale, taking the subway to Queen's Park and then walking to Princess Margaret Hospital. Although, I think Lily is missing going to the Magic Castle. It's a free daycare for patients and their families to use, and she loves it "more than school". It was a really nice perk at that hospital for sure.

Mom is still receiving excellent care at Baycrest. Her nurse, Allan, is great. He calls Mom his girlfriend, and tells her she's gorgeous. Her doctor is also very patient and listens to Mom and Dad's questions and concerns during his morning visits. Since she's been admitted to Baycrest, her pain medication has more than doubled, which is making her very drowzy, and sometimes confused. Just yesterday, the dietician changed her over to a puree diet to make feeding her a little easier. Even though Mom seems to be confused sometimes, it sounds like she was really aware yesterday afternoon when Pastor Scott, Mrs. Scott and her friend Diane were in to visit. Everyone joined in singing some hymns, and Mom was saying she has nothing to fear because she is leaning on Jesus.

Dad finally had his hernia operation on Tuesday at the Lindsay Hospital. Sounds like it was a good experience, as he doesn't remember going under, or even waking up after the operation. He had to ask the nurse when they were going to get started, and then was told it was already over. He's hobbling around a bit, but I think he'll be okay in no time. Even though we're so close, I think that I'll be chauffeuring him to and from Baycrest for the next week or so.

While Dad was out of commission, my Auntie Edith, Heather and I tried to beef up our visiting hours with Mom so she wouldn't be alone. My Aunt especially spent a lot of time at the hospital, or looking after Lily and Ella for me so I could visit with Mom by myself. Thanks so much!!! :)

In other news... my friend Jaime and I have been busy working our way through the first two seasons of Veronica Mars, which were lent to us from Krista and Kim in Calgary when they were visiting over the Christmas break. I promised that I would only watch the show with Jaime, and not go ahead, but curiosity got the best of me and while we were in the middle of the first season I skipped to the last episode to see who-done-it. Before you tar and feather me for breaking my promise... I confessed to Jaime in the morning, and she forgave me. What a great friend! For season two, I've been good and keep the DVD's tucked away so I'm not tempted. We only have five more episodes to go... which I think we'll finish on Monday night. If you've never watched Veronica Mars, I would highly recommend it. You really should watch it in order, but you'll catch on quickly if you just watch when it is regularly scheduled on tv. It's mysterious, funny, and smart. You'll love it for sure... and you'll be tempted to skip to the last DVD too!

Tonight, Brad and I (as long as I can get rid of my shift at work) are off to an information meeting about the French Immersion program offered for Lily next year. I think she'll pick it up pretty quickly. She seems to be really interested in other languages. Her Spanish words have been thanks to Dora The Explorer, her Uncle Drew and Auntie Heather. She knows her colours, numbers and even a couple of songs in Spanish. My friend from work, Diana, is from Colombia, and Lily will practice her Spanish out on her, "Hola Miss Diana". Diana has even given Lily some Spanish colouring pages for her. For a while Lily would only watch her Madagascar movie in Spanish... thank goodness for English subtitles! Lily has also learned how to count to 5 in Chinese, so she thinks that she's fluent. What a funny kid!

Normally I have a picture go with my blogs, but I've covered a couple different topics. Here's my favorite pic of my Dad and Lily tickling each other.

Over and out.

Holiday's Over, Back to Reality

Christmas has come and gone... New Year's too. I've missed blogging for a while because of the busyness in the last few weeks. We've attended Christmas concerts (Lily's and my cousin Christy at The People's Church), gone to a wedding (my cousin Wesley, and Rachel), 3 family Christmases, Brad just got back last night from a week in St. Louis (Urbana... maybe I'll be able to convince him to blog about it), the girls had a weeks vacation at Grandma and Grandpa Boo's (Brad's parents), and I've been working full time this past week. Busy, busy, busy. While everyone was out of the house, and when I wasn't working, I managed to get to Home Depot with my sister and paint Lily & Ella's room, "Pooh Bear Yellow"... pretty mellow compared to Elliot Gilmore's room, but really brightens up the space, and a million times better than the white it's been since we moved in. I kept the redecorating a secret from Brad and the girls. Lily wants to spend more time in there now, and Ella keeps running back and forth touching the walls, saying "Ohhh!" I was going to tackle our master bedroom too, but there really wasn't time, and I wanted to make sure that Brad would be happy with the colour too. Oh yeah, I'm also half way through a new book, "Banker to the Poor". I actually gave it to Brad for Christmas, but decided to read it first while he was away. Ha ha!

Somewhere among the busyness I was able to visit with my friends Krista and Kim from Calgary. It wasn't much time, but it was a BLAST!!! We made a couple visits to Bagel World, went shopping at the Yorkdale H&M, had a pot luck at Gilmore's in Oshawa with a bunch of old MBCers (thanks for hosting Joan & Derek), did our own version of a gift exchange (check out Jaime's website to find out more & see pictures), had a late dinner at Montana's. Without them, Lily and Ella's room would have never gotten completed either. They are a lot taller than me, and the taped the ceiling/wall for me with ease. There was only one thing that we weren't able to fit into their visit, a trip to Honest Ed's. They've never been, and I thought that it would be fun to stroll the isles for a bit. Next time.

New Year's was fairly uneventful. If you were in the Toronto area, you would know it was raining, pretty hard too. I was working a close shift that night, our manager gave us permission to close early if it was slow, which got us out an hour earlier. I was scheduled to open the next morning, so asked if I could borrow the couch at my Aunt & Uncle's who live right across the street from my work. We visited for a bit, watched the ball drop on the tv and toasted the New Year with some sparkling juice... and then went right to bed.

After work on Jan. 1st, I headed up to my in-laws to pick up the girls. Lily and Ella had a great time!!! I heard all about the tea parties, birthday parties, pajama parties, dress up parties - you get the idea. I know they were busy with the playdoh making all the pretend food for each of these events too. When we got back to our place, Brad was here waiting for us. It's nice being back together again after a week apart... and a lot messier too!

Well, I think that covers everything for now. All the best to you in the year ahead, and good luck with any resolutions you may have made.

Christmas Countdown

Just ask Lily if you're not sure how many days until Christmas. She's had a countdown of how many more sleeps are left since our tree went up. We've actually already had our larger family get togethers. The Bates Christmas was a couple of weeks ago, and the Norman Christmas was this past Saturday. Lily and Ella got to wear their brand new Christmas dresses from Grandma Norman, as seen in the picture. Ella's is still a little bit long, so she only wore hers for the picture. Lily is so excited about this dress! She'll be wearing it at her school's Holiday performance this Thursday. I'm going to try to video the show and will hopfully be able to download it here for you to see later this week.

This past Saturday, Lily was given "The Grinch that Stole Christmas" book and a stuffed Grinch from her Great Aunt and Uncle. Lily has never seen the Grinch, so was kind of startled by the green creature with yellow eyes. After reading the book to her realized that the Grinch turns out to be a nice guy in the end. She loves the story now, and even helps me to finish the rhymes.

Ella was given "The Sneeches" book and a stuffed Sneech from the same Great Aunt and Uncle. In the book I found another short story from Dr. Seuss that I had never heard before "Too Many Daves". I have grown up with three Uncle Daves, my Mom's older brother, and each of my Dad's sisters married Dave's. When I was little this was sometimes confusing.
I remember Uncle Dave Bates was Uncle Dave, Uncle Dave Pipe was Uncle David and when the third Dave was added to the family he was going to be called Uncle Davy... but I don't think that anyone really liked that and all three were just Uncle Dave. I read Lily the "Too Many Daves" story and we decided that the two Uncles that were there should be renamed with a name from the story. I think that they are still fighting over who gets to be "Uncle Stinky" and who gets to be "Uncle Zanzibar".

Only seven more sleeps, and Lily has been busy checking out the presents that keep appearing under the tree each morning. She's allowed to shake the presents and guess what they are, but isn't very good at that yet. I'm sure in a few years Brad and I will have to get a little smarter with our wrapping to disguise the actual gift. One of the presents she says is square and hard, which she thinks is a wand... when really its a book. Shhhh! Don't tell!!

'Tis The Season

Today was the Bates Family Christmas. We celebrate early to make sure that everyone can come. This way there aren't any conflicts and trying to figure out how to fit everything in to an already hectic December is a little more bearable.

My mom and dad hosted the day, and everyone brought something to help out with the food and beverages.... great turkey Auntie Kathy!!! As you can see from the pictures, some of the dessert became an activity for Lily. With a little help from Auntie Amy, Lily was able to decorate a couple of gingerbread cookies, before she decided to behead them.

Our family has tried a couple of different things over the years for gift giving, pick a name out of a hat, gag gifts (remember the bread mixes!), etc. This year we thought that it would be best for every family to donate to a charity of their choice. We've chosen to give to WOW (Women for Orphans & Widows, www.wowmission.com). This organization supports communities in Zambia and Malawi which have been affected by HIV/AIDS. We heard about this organization through a presentation at our Church.

For now the kids (four of them now!), are still exchanging presents. Lily REALLY liked her colouring/painting book, and right now is "sleeping" with her new Steffi Barbie. We can already tell that Ella will get a lot of use from playing with all of her musical gifts. She likes to listen and dances along with the songs.

Hope that the rest of the family had as much fun as we did today. Many blessings to you this Christmas!!

A Traditional & Unconventional Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!! I love this time of year. The weather is cool and crisp. The trees have changed colours. This weekend especially is wonderful because we get together with our families and eat massive amounts of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, salads, and, lets not forget... PIE! We started out going to Brad's parents place and enjoyed the previously mentioned food (it was sooooo good). Mom Sider always puts on an amazing spread of food... regardless of the occasion.

While we were waiting to sit at the table, I received a phone call from my Mom with some sad news. She has been sick since the Spring, and the doctor hasn' t been able to diagnose her until now. She needed to go into the Lindsay hospital that morning because her feet had swollen, she thought that this might have been a side affect of one of the tests she had taken a few days earlier. Then the hospital doctor told my parents that she has Pancreatic Cancer, which has already spread to her liver. Not very nice news to ever have to hear, but especially on a weekend which is dedicated to giving thanks.

Brad's and my parents live fairly close together so it was easy to hop in our car and drive to my parents. Mom and Dad were supposed to go to a community dinner, but changed their plans so that we were able to visit. Mom can't do anything until she speaks with her family doctor, to get a referral to a specialist. The hospital doctor was able to give her a prescription for pain, so I think that is helping her get some sleep... and obviously makes her a little more comfortable.

After a while Dad took Lily outside for a change of scenery, while Brad and I talked with Mom. Lily must have worked up Dad's appetite because he decided to cook some hotdogs for us over a fire. I know this is a little out of the ordinary for a Thanksgiving meal, but those were the best hotdogs I've ever had!

Normally I wouldn't write this kind of stuff on a blog, I like to keep things fun and light. But there are some of you who read my posts to keep in touch. Please keep my Mom and our family in your prayers.

Thanks

Sider Family Online Photo Albums

I was searching for a place to put some of my "albums" online to share with you. I found Shutterfly.com. I've already added our camping trip pictures from MBC, and another album of Lily dressing up. Click on this link to take a look at the pictures so far. Make sure that you check there often, because I have a lot more photos to share.

See You Later Grandpa Norman

Brad, the girls and I had a great time at MBC. We’ve come back feeling well rested and a little burnt (sunburnt that is!) We’re hoping to find another few days to head back up this summer.

At the end of our trip, we received news that my Grandpa Norman had died (July 7). We had one more night of camping and then dropped the girls off at Brad’s parents so that we could go to the funeral (July 10).

Our family met together at the funeral home and talked about the wonderful memories we have of Grandpa. We laughed a lot and certainly we cried. It really was a celebration of his life on earth and rejoicing of his new life in Heaven. He will be remembered for eating 12 cobs of corn at a meal, being an Awana leader, camp counsellor, disciplined studier of God’s Word, and someone who was always ready to share the Good News of Jesus with others. At the grave site, the funeral director shared that he was thankful for our families service for Grandpa. Two of his co-workers are not Christians, and they had to sit and listen to the testimony of God’s work in my Grandpa’s life. I couldn’t help thinking that this is how Grandpa would have liked it... being a witness to others, even through his death.

It isn’t very often that our whole family is together, so we took the opportunity to take a picture (above). Love you all!