Kitty’s Place

Well it is still in the mid 30’s here. But that is ok, it is nice in the day and with ac we can sleep at night.

Some changes in our plans. We have come to my sister’s early. LL was so spooked at my grandparents that yesterday he kept saying to me “please can we sleep at Aunt Kelly’s tonight”. So I asked and here we are. We had a great dinner, hot fudge sundae for dessert and we watched some of the first season of Survivor on dvd. It was nice to have someone to sit with in the evening after LL went to bed and this place is “home” to me, since my sister bought the home we grew up in.

We had a lovely dinner Tuesday with my youngest brother and his family. LL swam a couple times, played on the trampoline, played tag and hide and seek and just enjoyed having time with his cousins. I got to chat with all the boys and my brother and sister in law. My brother broke the news that my grandmother has agreed to list their home, so I spent the morning Wednesday washing floors, windows etc, in an effort to make it smell less “closed up”. The house has been empty for a year so it is a bit musty smelling. Well actually, it is very musty smelling, which contributed a lot to LL’s discomfort there.

We were supposed to go to my aunt’s today but LL was not feeling well. He complained of a tummy ache at bedtime and still had it this morning as well as a low grade fever. So I called my aunt and we will reschedule for next week. The kidlet curled up in front of the tv with his stuffed animals and is having a relax day. The fever and tummy ache are gone now so I think it was just that his little body needed a rest.

The carnival I was all primed for, is the weekend after we leave, not the weekend before. So no carnival for us. I can live without Lion’s carnival doughnuts for a couple more year. *laugh*

I am missing my fellow big time. I knew that before I left but it still sucks. *laugh* I hope he can come along next time we come to Canada.

We are in Port. Yesterday the temperature was 37C in the shade. I was wanting warm weather when we came but maybe this is a little too much of a good thing? *laugh*

We went to Stratford last Friday to the coolest toy store. Then we bought sandwiches at a little sidewalk cafe and ate them along the river. It was very warm but a nice breeze kept it from being too much. After dinner my brother took us back to Aunt Maud’s. The next day we went to see my grandparents again. It was not such a good day for them, what with the heat and more marked confusion evident in both of them. But we did have a little visit.

Sunday we came to Port and got settled into my grandparents house. It is strange to be there without them and everything is different since my aunts have been sorting and getting rid of things in anticipation of selling the house. We came to my sisters when we were settled and had a great visit. I can’t believe how big all my nieces and nephews have gotten. LL was just thrilled to see the playstation and the game cube and he and his cousin played for quite a while. We had pizza and chicken wings for dinner and they were wonderful.

LL is not really happy staying at G&G’s house. It is spooky for him because they are not there, so he refuses to stay in any room by himself, meaning that he even sits on the bathroom floor when I am in there. *laugh* I have explained to him that to me it isn’t scary because I have spent countless hours there since childhood. We are going to move over here to my sister’s on Friday, when they leave for a week at their cottage.

Yesterday we came to my sister’s in the morning and the kidlet watched all his favourite kid shows. There is no tv at G&G’s, they have it in their room at the home. Then we went uptown and strolled back, picking up subs on the way. It took about 2 hours (I think in non 37 degree weather it would take 20 minutes or so *laugh*) My sister picked up KFC for dinner and I was in heaven. While we were eating my youngest brother called and asked if we wanted to come for a swim. LL was more than ready for that, he really was finding the heat hard to handle. So we went out to my brothers and LL swam for a couple of hours. He also got to bounce on the trampoline and met more cousins. Again he was really spooked at bedtime so I stayed in bed with him and read until he was asleep. Once he is asleep he sleeps well, but he just does not care for it there at all.

Tonight we are having dinner at my brothers, Wednesday we are having dinner at my sisters, Friday we are going to a bbq at a friends house to celebrate Canada Day. There are celebrations all weekend at the little park down the street. Next weekend is the Lion’s carnival and we will go to that one day as well. So the next 2 weeks are shaping up to be as fun as the past 2 have been.

We have been here for a week and it seems like a couple days, since we are so busy. But on the other hand, I am really missing my fellow a lot.

Last Wednesday we got our flight out at 0640. We spent a few hours in Amsterdam at the airport, saw a poor man fall down stairs and land flat on his face. His glasses skidded across the floor and stopped at LL’s feet. I didn’t realize that and was trying to keep him back while security helped the elderly man up. Then I saw he had the man’s glasses so I let him give them over. Apparently he was blind in one eye and had limited vision in the other with his glasses on, so he misjudged the top step. Luckily he was not injured, it upset the kidlet enough just to see him fall. Our flight to Canada was fairly uneventful. The little boy in front of us threw up and his parents were in a panic because he had never done that before. The little girl behind us threw up and then her parents let her hang over the top of my seat. I said a prayer she would not throw up again and it was answered. LL on the other hand was fine this trip, even napped a bit. We got to Toronto at 1600, were through customs and had our bags by 1630 and were on the way to Aunt Maud’s at 1700. But the airport limo van had 3 different stops and we were the last, so it was 1900 when we got to her place. LL slept the whole trip. It was wonderful to see Aunt Maud and Uncle Allan and of course she had stuff for LL to play with and favourite foods ready for us when we arrived. She is one in a million.

Thursday we went to see my grandparents. They are both really failing and I am glad we came now and didn’t wait till August. Both were thrilled to see us and we were thrilled to see them. Lots of hugging and kissing stuff went on. *laugh*

Friday we shopped. We took LL to a dollar store and he was in heaven. It was hard to curb his shopping and make him understand we only have so much suitcase space going back. Then it was a Goodwill stop and I got him 6 pairs of jeans, all barely worn, for $2 a pair. I also got him grey flannel dress pants for $1.50 and two t-shirts for $1 each. Everything looked and felt new, which is the norm for kids clothes, they grow so fast that their clothes are barely worn sometimes. We had peaches and cream corn for dinner and I was so happy! I miss good corn, one of the few things I still miss. *laugh*

Saturday there was a carnival at the nursing home. So we went and spent the afternoon there. LL played lots of games, ring toss, fish pond, bean bag toss, plinko etc. He won 11 prize tickets and picked out a lot of fun stuff from the prize table. Grandma and Grandpa came down and spent the afternoon on the terrace and we had burgers, slushies, popcorn and candy floss. It was just a blast.

Sunday we went back to see G&G because it was Father’s Day. LL had picked out a card for Grandpa and he managed to choose a grandfather one from the large selection. Unfortunately Grandpa was not feeling so well and he had a choking spell followed by vomiting. So he fell asleep and we really didn’t get to visit with him at all. Gram was quite confused and a bit flustered, but we did have a visit with her. We were back to Aunt Maud’s for 1600 and then my brother Eric picked us up and we headed to his place in Kitchener. This is a new home for them and it is just lovely. Great location backing on to a forest and the layout is perfect. It was great to see them all and LL was thrilled to get to play with his cousin Jared.

Monday my niece Jordan took us to a big mall and dropped us off. LL and I shopped a lot, he got 4 more LeapPad books, a Pokemon game, a new baseball cap and assorted other things. I got my favourite shampoo and spray in conditioner and bought a cheap cell phone to use while we are here, since we will be staying at my grandparents home and their phone is disconnected. I took LL to Cinnabon and his eyes grew huge when he saw those buns. He got a small one and loved it. Then we called and Jordan brought us back here.

Tuesday we went to Old Navy to return an outfit Marla and Eric had gotten for the
kidlet, since it was too big. We exchanged it and then bought a few more things, two Canada t-shirts, flip flops and a pair of cargo shorts. From there Jordan, Jared, LL and I went to the Bulk Barn and candy shopped. I spent close to $30 there and did get some treats to take back to my fellow as well as lots of goodies to have here. Then we stopped at Tim Hortons and I had my first English Toffee Coffee of this trip. It is something I still dream about at times and I have to say it was as good as it is in my dreams. *laugh* Both the kids went off to work, so it was just the 4 of us for dinner. After dinner we went to a little park in Waterloo that has animals. LL took 30 pictures there. *laugh*

Today we are going to take LL to Waterloo to a Children’s Museum and I will get my pictures from my camera card transferred to a cd, since the card is full now. We really are having a blast!

Tomorrow we are going to St. Jacobs, a mennonite market and to a used book store. I think we are going to make a trip to Stratford on Friday and then it is back to Aunt Maud’s. We will head to Port after that for a week or so.

We have been a little busy here getting ready for Canada. *laugh*

Friday LL slept in a bit. We took the bus to Sigtuna and I got him a banana split. It suddenly occurred to me that he was 6 and had never one. He loved it. *laugh* We ran into one of his classmates at the ice cream place. That was fun. It absolutely poured rain on us as we went back to the bus station, so we were soaked when we got home. Then my fellow asked if we wanted to go to his parents, so he picked us up after work and we went over there. Had dinner, my fellow did some more with their computer and then we came home.

Saturday LL went with his grandparents to drop off some stuff in Sköldinge and then he spent the night at their place. So we had a really quiet relaxing time here. *laugh*

Sunday was more of organizing our stuff and our trip. The kidlet came home with my fellow’s family at 1630 and they had dinner with us. I talked to Aunt Maud and my sister on the phone. Life was just laid back.

Yesterday we went and exchanged money, shopped for some gifts to take over with us and I finished packing everything except toiletries. I have already checked in online and have our boarding passes in hand. I love the internet. *laugh*

Today I have a bit of grocery shopping to do and laundry time this afternoon. Our flight is at 0640 tomorrow so I plan on an early night tonight. *laugh*

The kidlet had his last day at school today. I went out at 1500 to help. I was just in time to hear that the other 3 moms who were there were done making sandwiches and juice for the kids afternoon snack. Perfect timing. *laugh* So I went and helped LL fish for a bit and then he went out in the canoe with two of the teachers for a little trip around the bay that the school is located on. At 1600 we three moms (the other had gone back to work) started preparing dinner. It was tacos and we had lots of fun and laughs up in the little house that serves as kitchen/dining room. The 4th mom came back from work and we got the tables set out and the food set out just in time. I had washed dishes as we went so there were none left when we finished getting dinner set out. After dinner another group of parents collected dishes and cleaned up. It really was well organized and fun.

The kids did a bunch of little tableau’s, all nature related and the single 6th grade student who graduated was given a gift, a certificate and his knife, something all the older kids make themselves when they get to 4th grade. I was sad to see that in total 6 kids will not be coming back in the fall. Since only 3 new kids applied to start in August, it is looking more and more like we will be losing our school. I so want to see it be viable and wish there more I could do.

So summer vacation is here and tomorrow morning we can sleep in because there is no need to drive the kidlet to the school bus.

I am doing the housework that has been let go to pot since I started school 6 months ago. Sorting through the piles of papers that built up and cleaning out fridge, cupboards, closets. But of course there have been 3 coffee breaks since I started and I am dancing about to the Eagles as I pick up and toss out. *laugh*

The kidlet went off this morning with his fishing pole and his life jacket in hand. He told me last night when I was tucking him in that he hoped he would fall in the water with the life jacket on. I said that would not be wise, we have already taken home his extra clothes from school (he has an extra set in his knapsack, just in case *laugh*). This morning he wondered what might happen if he caught fish and the other kids didn’t. I said he could share but he did not look like he thought that was the best option. Kids are too funny.

Have started organizing what I will take with to Canada. Talked to Aunt Maud last evening and we will stay with her to start. She will take us to see Grandma and Grandpa on the 16th! I miss them so much so I am thrilled we get to see them right away.

Tonight we have dinner and some kind of show (for lack of a better word … the kids will be doing something with the music Flight of the Bumblebee)at the kidlet’s school and then he is done until the fall. Maybe now that he will have time we can actually see his room cleaned up. *laugh*

When I was a kid in school, my mom was very vocal about things she felt were wrong or unfair. She was so determined that kids should get a good education that she joined and eventually became PTA president. We did have some unfortunate incidents occur when we were kids. My brother was in first grade and writing on a paper. He made a mistake and since he had no eraser, he scribbled out the mistake. The teacher had a fit and proceeded to scribble on his hands and face with a pen. My brother in the second grade was sitting at his desk with the top raised when the teacher got angry with the boy sitting in front of him, so she banged that childs’ head on the upraised top of my brother’s desk, which then fell and hit him on the head. I was playing in the playground in second grade and hit my head on the wall of school while running full force. I had a goose egg on my forehead and a concussion. I felt ill in class and asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom to throw up and she refused, saying I should have gone to the bathroom at recess. She never bothered to call my parents to say I was injured. Of course my mom rightly complained about all these incidents. The teacher eventually lost her job. The upshot of it was that I overheard one teacher telling another “be careful with those Gillespie kids, you don’t want their mom coming here and carrying on”. I never forgot that. Every time I see something wrong and think I should complain, I remember that and keep my mouth shut. I don’t want anyone talking that way about me.

What reminded me of this is that my fellow had some concerns about something in connection with the kidlet’s school and he voiced those concerns in an email. It was taken out of context and so he went in person to speak to the school staff this morning. There things were twisted even more away from his original concern. All I have thought about all day is “what are those teachers saying about us in front of Llywellyn”. I sincerely hope they are more professional than those teacher from long ago who haunt my memories.

I just booked our flight to Canada. LL and I are going to be going next week and staying for a month. I haven’t told any of my family yet. I have no idea where we will stay, but I got a good price on airfares so I booked. *laugh*

Yesterday was a pleasant vacation day. I took the kidlet to school, did a bit of shopping, did a bit of housework, caught up on emails and just relaxed until it was time to pick LL up. I found nice looking strawberries when I was shopping so we had them for dessert last evening. That was a nice treat. Today I shopped a bit more and ran into the mom of one of LL’s classmates at the grocery store, she gave me a lift home and took with her 3 bags of clothes that LL has outgrown that I put aside for her younger son. So it has been a productive morning and soon it will be time to go and get my son. He finishes school tomorrow and there is a dinner and program planned at the school tomorrow evening.

It has been a nice long weekend.

We had the rainy animal park on Saturday that was fun in spite of the rain. Yesterday I was supposed to laundry but I decided Saturday after we got home that I wanted to sleep in, so I switched my time to today. So I did get to sleep in some on Sunday, at least until the phone rang. It was the mom of the little birthday girl saying that the party was canceled because the birthday girl was ill. We lazed about, everyone showered and then we went to my fellow’s parents house. He was working on some computer problem they are having and also helped his dad put up a new light fixture. We got take out chinese food for dinner and got home about 2100.

Today I slept in till almost 0900 and then got up and ironed clothes for all of us to wear to the citizenship ceremony. Farfar got here a bit after 1200 and we went to the high school where they were having the ceremony. I overheard one of the politicians saying that there were to be 145 people there, counting the new citizens and their families. It was really quite nice. A folk band played for a bit, then the “regional chairman” spoke about citizenship and our kommun. We have a high number of immigrants here, 1/3 of our 36000 residents. After swedish and finnish, arabic is the most spoken language and there are approx 40 different languages represented here. I already knew most of that but it was interesting to hear it again. *laugh* After the band played a bit longer the certificates and table flags were given out. He had a bit of a problem with some of the names but did fairly well as far as I was concerned. He was a bit uncertain about how to say LL’s first name but had no problem with his last name, since he calls that one every month at the council meeting. I recognized or knew a number of people there. One of my classmates got a certificate and flag too and another classmate was there with his dad, who is a new citizen. Lots of little kids were new citizens and they were cute to watch. LL was so proud of himself going up on stage by himself and getting his things. After that part of the ceremony we all stood up and sang the swedish national song, Du gamla, du fria. I still don’t know the words to it but they thoughtfully provided them in the program they handed out. *laugh* To be honest I don’t even know the words to the Canadian one since they changed it and added in french a while back. After the actual ceremony we had lunch. It was cold salads and roast beef, followed by princess tårta and coffee. I got home at 1430 and my fellows went off with farfar to wire the ceiling lamp and work more on the computer. I have been doing housework and laundry so that tomorrow I have nothing on for my day free while my fellow goes to work and the kidlet goes to school. *laugh*

My it has been a long time since I have updated.

I did my Gustav Vasa presentation in swedish, did a final math presentation on Sylvesters algorithm, finished my two Milano projects and Friday I finished school until the fall. We had a little party with our svenska som andra språk group on the 27th, a dinner for everyone in the allmäns kurs on the 2nd and official graduation ceremonies with a lunch on the 3rd. I got an intyg for this term and we also each got a copy of the song our course coordinator wrote for our dinner on the 2nd, with a verse about each of the students and a cd with the projects and the pictures from our Milano trip.

So I am on vacation till the end of August! Did I sleep in late for my first day of vacation today? Not a chance. *laugh* We went on a bus trip to Furuvik. This was arranged by the ‘condo association’ and there were 5 busloads of people from our complex. We got on the bus at 0830, in the rain. It rained for the 2 hour drive and then it rained the entire day. *laugh* It was also cold and the only animals out in the park were geese. But we had lots of fun. There were still animals to see and we saw snakes and spiders too. The kidlet got to pet a snake and thought that was cool. We saw fish and birds and a shy little goat. We shopped in a gift shop and LL got a stuffed snake, a plastic turtle and a styrofoam safari hat. I got a couple postcards.

We had lunch (I think it is so cool that we paid 100 sek per adult and in return got a lunch voucher for 75 sek in addition to entrance tickets to the park, the rainforest attraction and the bus ride itself) in a big cafeteria style restaurant. It was there we had one of those “it’s a small world” encounters. A woman sat across from me and when I spoke to LL in english she asked if I was american. Further chatting revealed that she is a member of Amerikanska (Brandy). Her family was also there on a bus trip. It was fun to meet her and she is so nice. After lunch we braved the rain again, it was absolutely teeming down at that point and went to look at an old train and then to watch the circus show. We headed home at 1630 and the first thing we all did when we came in was get out of our wet clothes. *laugh*

Tomorrow LL has a birthday party to attend and I have laundry time booked. Monday is Sweden’s National Day and we are going to a ceremony for new citizens where we get a certificate and flag. Hmmm, maybe I will get that holiday sleep in next month. *laugh*