This weekend marked a definite milestone in our family… Gramps turned 90!  And four generations turned out to celebrate.

He’s a spry, rather odd old bird and as the years pass, so too does his desire to be alone.  He’s liking us all better and better and the solitary curmudgeon of the past has been replaced by an affable feller who likes to shoot the shit, trade war stories and make a few bad jokes.  Chuckles wildly when he hears one, too.

We love this Grandpa… not that we didn’t love the old one, but this one’s a whole lot easier to spend time with.  He’ll likely never see this post, but I wanted to honour him anyways, publicly… and where better than on this big ol’ innernet?!?!

These images are also a nice way to honour November in b&w over at Springtree Road….

Oh… and did I mention he hates to open gifts in front of people?  Heh.  Somehow, despite his chagrine at being the centre of attention most of the evening, he managed to endure….

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This is supposed to be a Best Shot Monday post.  It isn’t.  I have wads of photos filling up cards, yet to be transferred over to computer for editing.  We just arrived at the in-law-family-beach-house in Delaware last night after many hours on the road and tons of fun visiting family and friends.  I am happy to settle in… get newsletter done… and just relax!

While we’ve been tired, sometimes cranky and sleeping in various different beds, these past several days have been tremendous fun, as well as a little inspiring in the areas of parenting and homeschooling.

After leaving Northern Virginia we headed south to western North Carolina, where we spent an overnight with my cousin and her family.  I haven’t seen my cousin in over 15 years.  Of all of us we were the closest cousins, during childhood, meeting most summers at my grandmother’s house in Northern Ontario.  I was in her wedding.  That was the last time I saw her.  As an aside, that last time I saw her, as recorded for all of eternity in her wedding photos, I had a hideous cold sore eating up the lower right quadrant of my face.  Our reunion on Thursday… a hideous cold sore eating up the lower right quadrant of my face.  Weird.

In the span of time since last seeing her I’ve gotten married and had three kids.  In the same span of time, she has had nine.  Yes, you read correctly… NINE.  She has nine of the best behaved, interesting, beautiful kids anywhere.  In fact, I almost took one home with me.  The baby.  He would have made for a perfectly delicious, chubby, smiling, giggling, wondrous addition to our home (currently screaming out for another baby, I might add), but I was wrestled to the ground as he was pried from my arms I resisted….  something about his already having a wonderful, loving home… what-ever.

Anyways, despite my nervousness, seeing her after so much time apart and our lives so changed, sharing time with cousin and her family was a pleasure.  She is a wonderful mother.  Thanks to her sense of structure and painstaking organization, there is no chaos or mayhem.  And the woman homeschools.  Sure, there’s the possibility everyone was on their bestest of behaviour with company- freshly beaten lectured just before we arrived- but really, things just ran too smoothly for that to be true.  It was evident that these were just well-behaved, thoughtful, intelligent, happy kids… regardless when anybody shows up.

I took notes.

After leaving North Carolina, it was back to Virginia: Hampton Roads.  Hubby’s business partner and his family.  More familiar in the noise and chaos.  Perhaps less organized than our hosts the previous night… but like I said, familiar!  It’s always fun and we hit El Mariachi.  My favourite Mexican place.  Anywhere.  And we took the gang to Busch Gardens at Williamsburg.  OMG!  I had a blast.  Not being of age, or more specifically interest, for rollercoasters and other harrowing amusement park rides, they were pretty bored until they got to the bumper cars.  Watching mummy depart each ride, swaying and swerving, slightly green-faced, grinning like an idiot only has so much appeal to the young ‘uns.  But, hey… I. Had. A.  Blast!!  Apollo’s Chariot.  Alpengeist.  Lochness Monster.  Loved.  It.  I didn’t get to the Griffon.  I wasn’t quite ready to ball up for that one.  Maybe next time.  And perhaps a kid might actually go with me….

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The subject of this weeks Best Shot Monday is just downright spooky. We are here in Northern Virginia visiting hubby’s family. His sister has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and only last week began her very aggressive chemotherapy treatment. When the chemo is over she will lose a breast.

After managing their way through the trial of the diagnosis, the information gathering and the just plain old life changing nature of the experience in a very short time, she is now feeling for the most part lousy from the chemo. She will lose her fertility and her hair. But with this most aggressive treatment her prognosis is good.

Here’s the deal. She’s turning 40 next month. She’s married. She has three kids, ages 6, 3 and not yet 2. She has a tremendous fight ahead of her. I don’t know that she quite has her head around what lies before her, I don’t know that anyone would… or could. But she is keeping a fabulous attitude. She smiles. She laughs. She is moving forward with incredible strength, grace and humour.

She’ll shave her head on Wednesday. And in anticipation of that event she asked me to shoot a portrait. The quintessential ‘before‘. She rallied, gussied, put on a smile and sat by a tree nearby her home. Despite being tired, feeling sick and emotionally exhausted!

In honour of all those battling this disease and my dear SIL, with a big shout out to Caring Bridge, where she shares this ordeal with family, friends and others- a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend- a superhero….

funny…

generous…

alive…

loyal…

loving…

vibrant…

joyous…

strong.

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We spent an afternoon at the zoo. National Zoo. Downtown Washington, DC. I do enjoy a good zoo… and National is top o’ the heap… cuz, y’know, it’s like, free. If you don’t count the $20 bucks for parking.

Anyhoo. We get to the zoo every time we visit the in-law family on the east coast. This year, in an effort to let SIL rest, we took her kids, too. The cousins. Three. Ages 6, 3 and almost 2. Along with our own miscreants. Six kids, Filipes and I. Thankfully she had the foresight to pack snacks and drinks. For six kids. Because, we packed NOTHING! And while conscientious, organized SIL handed us a cooler pack full of afternoon at zoo sustenance, all husband and I could do was look at each other sheepishly, while pulling one another’s heads out of our respective asses. I mean, who plans to take six freakin’ kids for an afternoon at the zoo in 90 degree heat and packs NOTHING?!?! Perhaps we figured we’d spend a fortune on hotdogs, french fries and pop…. or maybe just get ‘em jacked up on over-priced lemonade and cotton candy. Or perhaps, just perhaps, we did not think at all…. But, I digress. Off to the zoo….

Mr. Gorilla Cranky-Pants…

See… just not in the mood for company…

And nothing but ass…

More Cranky-Pants… Orangutan style. Regarding his adoring public with disdain…

And some pretty- stinky!- flamingos!

Shnoooort…. Schnuuuurzzzzzzzz…. Schnuuuuuuuuummph…

Zzzzzzzzzzzz…. urcccchh…. huuuunnngh…. zzzzzzzzzzzz……

And along with the animals of course….

The girlies….

The challenge of the water fountain….

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Well, two full days on the road… a fast though tearful goodbye to my sweetest of four-legged companions… hours spent answering endless variations of the question, “how much longer…” and a monstrous Costco pizza. Despite feeling completely bloated after eating it, I must thank the wondrous yet excessive entity that is Costco, as said pizza sustained us through the entire following day of nothing but salted peanuts!

And so, here we are. Deep in the hot, steamy belly of America. Only miles from the centre of the universe capital of the United States. And so far, so good. We were upgraded in our rental car after all. What was to be five of us crammed into a medium sized sedan, is now five of us cruising in a medium sized SUV.

Three rows of seating, paple! All is right with the world.

After some visiting and dinner we were pretty much ready to crash. I opted for room upstairs with Fidge. And a fan. The boys and husband opted for the ’sleeping porch’.  And dear MILlie.

Yes, given the choice: upstairs with your wife… or out on the porch with your mother…. Hmmmmmmm.

You do the math….

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Well, our week with MILlie has been a wonderful one. And it draws to a close this evening. Her travelling companions are really terrific and honestly provide a much-needed and entertaining buffer between myself and dear MILlie.

They have come. Relaxed. Hot springed. Golfed. Shopped. Hiked. Relaxed. And yes, despite the rough beginnings, were all bloody thrilled at my Rocky Mountain Sunshine Tour: 10 hours sightseeing… north, through our Columbia Valley… up to the summit of Kicking Horse, at almost 8000 feet with an amazing grizzly sighting, Kicking Horse Pass to Lake Louise where the lake was, of course glorious and shopping, thankfully fruitful, and Free. Valet. Parking. I like to think it was my fresh, sun-kissed complexion and the fact I was wearing no bra, but I believe, more accurately, it was just such a clusterfuck, the exhausted young valet just wanted to be rid of yet another vehicle full of old people…. whatever. Free. Valet. Parking.

And so… we prepare for our own trip. To MILlies. Yes. You read correctly. We now go to her house. It’s just a matter of strange timing this year that her trip up here should fall only a matter of two days before our trip down there. So from Canadian Rockies, we head south to northern Virginia. Hello humidity!

Anyways, my trust in the universe has come through yet again. We have been mulling over what to do with the Sweet HoneyBeast for weeks. We are going to be gone three weeks. Bottom line: husband did not want to spend upwards of $20 a day on a kennel/pet resort/doggie spa for our mostest faithful of companions. Apparently he has incredible trust in the capacity of the universe to provide… because what the hell else were we going to do with our precious family pet?!?! Other than bring her with us. So, I’ve been researching. And stalling. While it is a dream to take my doggie to the in-law-family Delaware beach house… she would be friggin’ over the moon there… I could not bring myself to subject her to the trauma of the flight.

The question of the dog has been mind-crushingly distracting and demoralizing. In amongst our hectic pre-holiday entertaining, work and other busy-ness, a big, black, furry, drooling weight bearing down harder with each passing day. Until this past week. When our friends/neighbors/local business owners Foreign Workers arrived. Thank you BC government and your foray into the trade of human commodities! And while I will without doubt remain skeptical of this program, bringing workers in from abroad(primarily Latin America and the Philippines), for two year stints, as they leave young families, educations and professions to come to our fair province to work menial labour, trying to make a better life…. we will do a little bit to help as this group of three lovely young Filipinos- two men and a woman (parents, each)- have a nice place to stay in their transition, while also knowing our HoneyBeast is getting good care… in her own home.

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This has been one helluva day. A great day, but Julie McCoy I ain’t. I did, however, successfully transport two senior citizens, one middle-aged woman and three miscreants hither, dither and yon in a matter of, oh… merely ten hours. While I will have pics up in a post to come- I’m just not up to it right now- the day began something like this:

8:00- Gulp last of second cup of coffee.

8:25- Miscreants are hair brushed, clean clothed and out the door and buckled into what is a CLEAN Honda Odyssey. No, I did not forget to mention that teeth were brushed. Teeth decidedly NOT brushed. But we’re out the door ready to pick up remaining party at timeshare condo for 8:30. Teeth-schmeeth….

8:40- Two senior citizens- one being visiting MIL, heretofore referred to respectfully as MILlie- and middle aged companion in CLEAN car and buckling up, on way to…

8:47- Quaint, local coffee shop ordering necessary sustenance. Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffeegingersnap. Ahhhhh……

8:52- Smiling, content, coffee and gingersnap in hand, on my way out the door of quaint, local coffee shop I hear distinct and so-very-familiar blood-curdling caterwaul of my miscreants.

8:53+5secs- Opening automatic door of mini-van to see middle aged woman staring a-gawk as my two boys proceed to tear out each other’s hair by the roots while gnawing off one another’s fingers into nothing more than bloody little stumps. Screeching in a way that can only be described as otherworldly. Middle-aged woman stares a-gawk.

8:54- In an uncharacteristic display of restraint I immediately recover from my shockannoyancefrustrationbloodyeyedangerandragehumiliationembarassment at my children’s complete and total lack of self-control and decency and order them out of the vehicle. Voice calm but dripping in quiet maniacal fury.

9:55- Take boy miscreants over to furthestmost corner of small parking lot and scream my bloody fool head off, threatening torture, bodily harm and no freezies again, EVER explain to them calmly and rationally how absolutely inappropriate and disappointing their behaviour is.

10:00- Reassemble at the van, and as I silently offer myself effusive praise for controlled and effective parenting, buckle everyone in. Again. Glare meaningfully once more at offending miscreants. Two senior citizens, one being dear, blissfully clueless, MILlie, secure themselves once again in mini-van.

10:01- Middle aged woman conspicuous in her silence. I give an exhausted sigh. Gulp coffee. Slam van in reverse. Highway. North. Destination: A mere nine hours, thirty more minutes of valley, sight-seeing, family fun!

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A treasure from this weekend? My neice… my sister’s youngest child.

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