Forgot to mention...

Kodiak had his cast removed Wednesday night. He's quite excited as his first soccer game is next Tuesday. He was shocked at how much muscle tone he lost in that month. He's been packing around a stress ball to try and strengthen his hand a bit. He adapted so well to doing things with one hand that the first day it was hilarious to see him almost walk out the house with only 1 arm in his coat, trying to do things with his left hand instead of both. I'm glad it healed so quickly. He would have been so upset if he had to miss any of his soccer season.

Kodiak is turning into a bear

We've had temps from 9 - 15 Celsius this week which means that Kodiak has been in shorts all week. His legs will rarely see pants until about October. It would appear that over the winter his hormones have kicked in big time covering his legs with manly man hair instead of the boyish fuzz that used to be there. About a month ago he had to shave his upper lip for the first time too. It looks due for another pass of the razor. A month between shaves is probably not too serious but it's all too much for this Momma. My first born is seriously morphing from boy to man. I'm SO not ready for this.

What an end to the snowboard season!!

Kodiak and La Diva went out for the last day of boarding at the local hill yesterday. Kodiak was cut off by a new boarder and took a tumble. He ended up with a fractured right wrist which means that he will start the pre-season of soccer training in a cast. He is not impressed. Soccer is his sport and he has been desperate for the snow to melt so the season would start. It is spring break so he will have a week to adjust to it before he's back at school.

Kodiak pre wipeout.

La Diva biting it.

Wordless Wednesday

* photos by Iceman starring Kodiak goofing for the action shots (obviously it's time to retire those track pants lol... can't keep up to that kid and his growing) FTR the junk you always see along the edge of the yard in the pictures belongs to the neighbors and not to us. ;)

Clear Skin

Kodiak and La Diva really don't have a fighting chance in the hereditary department when it comes to clear skin. Their parents have battled awful acne in their teen years to the point that I was on Accutane for a brief time (ugh, what a mistake but I was heading to college and desperate) and the Hero has some scars to show for his awful skin. Seeing as kids are just downright vicious these days I've been trying to do whatever I can to help them through this process. La Diva is really just starting the zits and she has mostly a blackhead problem with the odd awful under skin eruptor that leaves an oozing mess on her sweet face. Kodiak is blessed with the T zone nightmare which was starting to look like a permanent affliction of red dots.

They use a skin care line from Melaleuca which work well enough. We decided to try an additional route with Kodiak which was to add the multi plus daily glow vitamin and take him off milk for a 2 week period. I have heard rumblings that dairy is a major culprit with acne issues but the larger reason we cut out the milk was because he seems to have a *warning disgusting* build up of mucous which caused his ears to feel plugged and an urge to hork constantly. When he was a small boy and required a 2nd round of ear tubes we researched other options and decided on chiropractic care. The Chiropractor suggested that we switch him to goat's milk for a time because it has less mucous than cow's milk and could help his ears to drain, along with the chiro adjustments. It worked wonders and he never needed tubes. So when he was saying it felt like his ears were plugged alot this came back to mind. We had decided we would do this milk free trial and then schedule a hearing test if necessary. While the milk free trial worked on all counts- his hearing has improved, he isn't constantly horking and his skin is really clearing up. We also discovered that he was drinking upwards of 4 litres (a gallon) of milk every day. He is a cheese lover and would rather cut out all that milk and still have his cheese. He has tried soy, goats milk and rice milk during the experiment and finds goats milk to be the closet to cows. So for his cereal we will have goats milk on hand. He is drinking more water which is good for him. All the way around it has been a win-win situation for him.

As far as La Diva goes we have issues with her ability to swallow pills so this vitamin will be near impossible for her to take. She is so slim that I really don't want to take the diary away from her at the moment. So we will just keep going with the skin care routine and play it by ear.

Wordless Wednesday- photos by Kodiak

Hazzard County Days

This weekend was Hazzard County's version of a fair.  It consisted of a pancake breakfast, a parade, a giant junk sale down main street, garage sales around town, ball, beer gardens, a petting zoo, some throw/kick the ball type games for kids, wagon rides, a bench show and fireworks.  It was pretty lame even for this town.  

I had fond memories of the agricultural show growing up so I encourage Kodiak and La Diva to participate in the Bench Show.  Sadly it was a very poor showing of participants but I think it was still a good experience for them.  Kodiak submitted photography in 12 of the teen categories, I believe he was the only entrant but was judged according to the criteria and did not just receive ribbons for every entry because he was the only one.  He placed first with the following pictures: 

He place second with these pictures: (missing an action shot of the Turtle playing soccer which is not on this computer)

and third with these: The first 3 were part of a group of 3 flowers for 1 entry.

La Diva submitted 4 entries and won first for Ruffled Skirt:

 and 3rd for Best Friend:

They were pleased with their winnings and it was a good experience despite the lack of competition.  We hosted a parade watching morning at our home as the parade route had changed to go right past the front of the house this year.  It was a relaxing weekend for the most part and we managed to survive the heat.

How is this possible? My first baby is one step closer to becoming a man. I do not know how we got here, it just doesn't seem possible that the years have flown by so fast. I'm still processing this and have been in denial these weeks leading to Kodiak's birthday. I'll share more about my wonderful boy later. Happy Birthday Kodiak! You are an amazing young man and I'm so very proud to be your Mom.

Soccer, the good, bad and the beautiful.

The Good

Soccer season has started up for the Hutch again. You may recall that our boys are soccer fanatics, particularly Kodiak. Iceman and Turtle play one night a week. Kodiak plays twice and practices once a week. La Diva opted out because there was not a team for her age range in our town and she wasn't up for playing with strangers in another town. She is in swimming instead and was on the High Jump team. She did very well at that for her first foray into the sport. She's obviously inherited my Mom's talents in that arena as she was a long jump and high jump champ in High School. We enjoy soccer, it's a great sport to watch.

The Bad

Unfortunately Kodiak's soccer season has been nothing short of a gong show. He was in such an awesome league last year but they are suffering from volunteer shortages and had to cut out the older age levels and run a smaller program this year. So we moved on to the next city... ugh... we should have headed west. From the get go this has been a disaster of an experience. The woman in charge of his age level pretty much bullied the coach and assistants into coaching... one of them being the Hero. He booked up his schedule with work after he was initially told he wasn't needed to coach. He has only been able to make one game so far and no practices. Hopefully that will change after this week is done. I have never in my life seen such a disorganized coach- last night was their 3rd game and he has still not organized lines or positions for the boys to play. So it is a gong show of boys running around without understanding of their position and bagging on each other for ever slip up. There are some kids with really great skills on the team that really want to play. Then there are a bunch of arrogant mouthpieces who don't listen to anyone, rag on every player while they don't contribute one positive thing to the team. They lip off the refs, ignore the coaches and do their own thing. They are the first to blame their teammates for their losses. (they've had 2 losses and 1 rain out so far this season). Last night by some miracle they managed to get 3 goals- the first was scored by our very own Kodiak. Their opponents rallied in the second half and outplayed the cocky twerps who got lazy and arrogant. Unfortunately Kodiak was in net for the 2nd half. He is not a goalie. He tries to be but it's not his strength. He is a killer defenceman and he does well as striker. He tried his best and was beating himself up when the other team managed to score twice on him and win the game. The thing is he had no defence to speak of. The hotshots who beat him down for losing the game for them did not make a goal, they huddled in a group of idiots to create a defence wall which only made it impossible for their goalie to see the play or have a clue where the ball was. They play dumb. I told him to cut himself some slack and that it takes a whole team to win and a whole team to lose. That they will continue to lose every game until they learn how to play their positions and work together as a team. Soccer is a sport of brains, skill and teamwork. They twerps who had the most criticism were ones that didn't score a goal, didn't aid in the scoring of the goals and defended nothing.

The kids that they beat up on are the ones that have the skills- some of them are small for their age, some are heavy but they know what they are doing. They are trying to listen to their disorganized coach whose practices are also a lesson in disorganized chaos with him abandoning drills half way through and letting the twerps jack around and not listen. In fact at the last practice one of these twerps was chasing another and grabbed me hard and almost threw me to the ground. They kept on like nothing had happened. I said very loudly "Excuse me" and then they turned and said "oh sorry!". Needless to say I'm still suffering from that incident. I feel like I should have bruises on my arms where he grabbed me but I have nothing but pain to show for it. BTW I was on the sidelines trying to catch parents with the picture forms that the coach failed to hand out the time before and pictures were later that afternoon.

So we are very disheartened by this soccer experience. I hope that they can improve it for the sake of Kodiak and his teammates that want to play. I'm not holding out much hope because these kids are a mess... I sat with the opposing team because if the kids are such pukes you can only imagine how pukey their parents must be. UGH! I didn't want to spend my evening biting my tongue in two listening to them.

The Beautiful

We are going to see Beckham tonight. The Galaxy is playing an exhibition game with the team from a nearby province. This will make my soccer angst all better. How can it not???.......

I love my children, I love my children, I love my children...

...love my children, love my children, love my children.... really I do.

Not liking being a mom to a tween so much. I keep reminding myself his brain is scientifically proven to be mush at the moment but that isn't making it any easier.

I love my children, I love my children, I love my children, I love most of my children, I love my children............aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

Through Kodiak's Eyes

Kodiak is our budding photographer. His camera, a hand me down from us, is never far from his reach. He pours over magazines and books with photography and about photography. He hopes to own a "really cool camera" one day soon.

On a totally unrelated note he was invited to his first junior high boy-girl party this year. His little brothers have teased him without mercy. His only qualifier for attending is that he is giving her money because well..... any other gift would allow people to think he actually cares about his sweet girl. ;P lol One step closer to the best hyphenated last name in the history of the world..... *sniff* my baby is growing up.

Catching my breath

This has been a crazy busy week and I feel like I've finally caught my breath.

The Hero had a big day on Tuesday with a spot on the local breakfast show promoting the Fire Within project that he has been involved in since the summer. Following that he had to rush to pick a up a colleague from the airport, meet me and then we all headed back to the city to attend the press conference. It was a great success with representatives from several fire departments, politicians, corporate sponsors and the all important media. They got a few moments on the 6 o'clock news which was no small feat considering we are in the midst of an election and that is the top story these days. It was awesome to see the organization get some recognition and see more people jump on board with such a worthwhile effort. Hopefully the exposure will parlay into more departments getting better equipment and PPE. I was very proud watching the Hero in his element and it was awesome to hear people sing his praises. He could care a less about the glory but I was glad to see him get some pats on the back after the months of hard work and juggling of all the hats he was wearing in this endeavour - as a corporate sponsor, as a volunteer with a VFD and assisting the organizers of the Fire Within.

Wednesday was Kodiak's day as Torch Bearer for the Winter Games. We cheered him on as he did his part in the run. He was so proud and excited about this once in a lifetime opportunity. He's such a great kid!! After the run the Hero was approached by a team doing a documentary on the games and they interviewed him as parent of a torch runner, as well as a volunteer doing medical with the VFD for one of the events. Later in the day the crew came on the bus and asked whose Dad was a firefighter and then interviewed Kodiak to tie the story together. The documentary will air this coming weekend. Kodiak is very excited about it.

Thursday night was the Opening Ceremonies for the games and Kodiak was involved with the rest of the torch bearers in the procession that led to the lighting of the flame and the official opening of the games. It was a long event but thankfully it wasn't too cold that night so we survived without frostbite.

La Diva kind of got the short end of things this week. Her birthday is Valentine's Day which usually means a party at school because it is her birthday but this year they were out of school due to the games. Add her big bro stealing her thunder by being a torch bearer for the games, the opening ceremonies having the nerve of being scheduled for Valentine's Day and you a Diva who was feeling a bit less than special on her national holiday. We did our best to make her day special and had a breakfast of chocolate waffles, pink whipped cream and berries. She opened presents after breakfast and was pleased with her loot. My 'rents came down in the afternoon for the ceremonies so she was showered with more gifts and we had Chocolate Wafer Cake. I lined a heart shaped cake pan with parchment, layered chocolate wafers, topped with pink whipped cream and repeated the layers until it was full. The next day I loosened the sides, warmed the bottom of the pan with a hot cloth and it came out onto the plate seamlessly. It has been ages since we had this cake. My Mom used to make in the style of a log per the recipe on the side of the Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Box. It was as delicious as I remembered and my Mom was impressed with my use of the heart pan. (no small feat to impress her).

La Diva and Iceman headed home with my 'rents after the ceremonies. They spent the rest of their holidays with them. They will be back tomorrow. Kodiak and Turtle had a good weekend together learning how to play the Wii. Yes we finally found one!! It was almost an act of God as the Hero and I crossed wires in our communication that morning. If that did not occur he would not have been at Wally world at that precise moment and snagged the last of the shipment that had came in that day. It was their first shipment since Christmas.

The Hero has been busy since Friday doing medical for the games. He has put in some long days. Kodiak, Turtle and I took in some of the ringette games on Friday. It is quite the sport. I think it requires more finesse and greater skating ability. Even Kodiak was impressed with the skills of those girls and I think a bit surprised at how vicious they can be. Yesterday we were lazy, catching up on emails, blogs, message boards, playing Wii and Webkinz, doing a bit of laundry but basically vegging. I read the best little book packed full of wisdom and hope to get a post compiled about it very soon. It really impacted me in a huge way. It was a lovely day!!

Tomorrow the whole crew will be back together again. I'm sure they had a great time but it is always nice to have all the bunnies back in the Hutch. Back to school and routine on Tuesday.

The Bucket List and the Green Bowl

Last night the Hero and I went on a date. We rarely go to the movies for our dates because I like to talk to the Hero. However, we both wanted to see The Bucket List and we got a killer deal on passes at Costco. It was a really fun movie with lots of laughs, some tears (from me of course) as well as thought provoking. I started a 100 things list some time ago, I need to find it, I know I had a hard time putting anything to paper and doubt I even made it to 50. I think I wanted it all to be something huge that would make a difference to the world. I need to revisit it and be more honest and less holy in my ambitions.

The evening started off with me sitting on the side of the highway, a place I am familiar with. There were 2 cars part ways into the ditch along the highway but with considerable distance between them. The road was dry and weather clear so it was rather peculiar to see cars in the ditch. There were a couple cars already pulled over but the Hero needed to make sure they were ok and no medical assistance was needed. He always has a reflective coat of some sort in each vehicle and for that I'm thankful. I can spot him easily in the darkness of the road. Turns out that one car was stopping to help the other and as he slowed down the people in the first car started throwing things at him. He then misjudged the shoulder and the soft, slushy snow dragged off the road. The Hero informed the police and called back the little nurse who had also stopped and was headed to the first car. What the heck is wrong with people?? No wonder everyone is getting so hard hearted towards their fellow man when you have lunatics who attack a good samaritin.

Remarkably this ordeal still left time for us to get to the movie with 30 minutes to spare, which it took almost all of for the Hero to get snacks. While he was gone I watched the see of blue and grey heads with their balding partners make their way up the stairs of the theatre. I was enjoying how tenderly they took care of each other as they climbed those dimly lit stairs. I was then alarmed as several of them near collapsed into seats and started taking their pulse. When the Hero finally slipped into his seat I told him to be prepared to spring into action because I feared someone was going to collapse.

After the movie we stopped for Decaf Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Lattes at Starbucks but sadly there was not a table to be had so we headed back to town. We took a little cruise around our little town checking out the for sale signs while finishing off our Lattes. We no sooner pulled in front of the house than the phone started to ring and it was Kodiak informing us that Iceman had just hurled all over himself and his bed in his sleep. Kodiak was so thankful when we came through the door mere seconds later. He was not looking forward to cleaning up his little brother or the mess that he had left. Leftover spaghetti had been Iceman's choice from the offerings of the week. Nasty! So the Hero got Iceman in the shower while Kodiak and I stripped the top bunk. Miraculously he missed all 4 of his stuffed animals! Kodiak ran down to the basement to bring up the big green tupperware bowl a.k.a the puke bowl. Thankfully that was the end of the puke session and he is his normal self this morning. I was worried as he had spent the afternoon at a birthday party in the petri dish known as McDonald's playland. I hope it is nothing that will spread through the entire house. I don't do puke well and the Hero is heading south later this week.

Hero had a call at about 4:00 am so I'm tired. He took Kodiak and La Diva boarding today so I hope to get a nap out of Iceman and Turtle. I have BBQ beef cooking in the crock pot, I used that recipe as a guide and just went my own way with it. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Kodiak

I'm so proud of this boy. I'm always proud of him but this week has been one of those stellar weeks for him personally. First off, he was called to the Principal's office (which totally freaked him out because that has never happened before) and asked to be one of the torch runners for the Winter Games that are coming up next month. He was one of four chosen from his school (grades 7-12) so that was a huge honor for him. He is very excited as he gets a games track suit and this huge honor.

In the mail this week we received a Standard of Excellence award for Kodiak. This came as a result of his provincial achievement tests from last year. We went through plenty of frustration preparing for these standardized tests which don't count an iota towards their school year. ( I promise not to go off on that rant today.) This made it all the sweeter for him to receive recognition for his hard work.

Kodiak also advised us that his math average for this term so far is 93%. Thank you Mrs. W, the best math teacher ever from last year for preparing him so well for success in Jr. High.

He will head off on his first school trip later this month to go boarding in the mountains. There is only 1 other boy in his grade going and the rest will be older kids. To say I am stressing about this is an understatement. I'm trying not to let him know how hard it is for me to let him go. He is a really great kid and I know he will make wise choices during the weekend. He has such a great desire to go out and see the world that I know that this trip is nothing in the scope of what may come. My mind just goes off onto crazy street thinking about avalanches, mob mentality crazed teenagers, broken bones, him getting lost and not knowing what to do, all those worries that come with sending one of the bunnies out of the hutch.

Remembering Thoughtfully

November 11th marks Remembrance Day or Veteran's Day in North America. I encourage you to take a moment of quiet reflection and prayer out of respect for the men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Remembering Thoughtfully....

Men waiting anxiously

Soldiers fighting fearlessly

Search for freedom endlessly

Death toll mounting daily

Blood flowing continually

Women and children crying hopelessly

Civilians dying needlessly

Orphans searching desperately

Heroes are made unexpectantly

Praying for freedom and peace eventually.

By Kodiak, Age 11 © November 2006

Where are we runnin'?

Today was the annual Terry Fox Run for our schools. Kodiak placed 4th out of over 300 students. The High School students helped with marking the route and such so his "competition" ranged from Grade 1 to Grade 9. He was very proud of his accomplishment. La Diva and Iceman enjoyed their "run" as well. La Diva wore a sign saying who she was running for with pictures of her Great Papa and Zackary. She also had a list of people we know who have survived cancer, those still battling and those who are in our memories her poster. Iceman had made a copy of her sign but decided to leave it at home because he was afraid it would get rained on and ruined. He has it hanging in his room so he can remember to pray for Great Papa and Zackary every night.

Turtle did not have school today but was able to go in the fire truck and help Daddy with the traffic control for the big race. The Hero came home rather discouraged at the lack of community support. Everyone is in such a darn hurry that they were trying to sneak around the road blocks when children were crossing the street. The Hero almost had to take on one jerk who was throwing a fit. What an example to the children who are doing a great thing, raising money for a cause that affects nearly every person in our country in one way or another and these pinheads think they are more important than the safety of these children.

On the bright side, one of Kodiak's teachers stopped to talk to the Hero during the run and told him what a fantastic kid he is. That is always great to hear. Kodiak really looks up to Mr. D and thinks he is a fabulous teacher. Kodiak has been really stepping out of his comfort zone and taking Jr. High by storm. He is the class rep in the Student Union for his grade. In years past he would have just let someone else come forward. This year he threw his hat into the ring against 3 girls in his class. I'm really proud of him. One of his goals the beginning of this year was to become more confident in his leadership skills and he is definitely stepping up to achieve that one. I shouldn't be surprised as he achieves or exceeds any goals he sets for himself.

La Diva is involved in the "Pay it Forward Posse" and the Spirit Squad. She is also taking piano and finally has a fabulous teacher. Piano teachers are really hard to come by these days and the group lessons seem to be very popular. We tried that last year and it was a complete gong show. Her teacher recently graduated with her degree in music; she is young, talented and a great teacher. I'm so glad that we found her as La Diva has a natural gift and I was worried last years fiasco would discourage her from growing her talent.

We are crazy busy this coming week. We are moving La Diva to the basement with Kodiak. The Hero is talking over her room as his office. He's been working from home for almost a year and his little perch on the top of the stairs is just not working for any of us. It will be great to be able to shut the door on him. Kodiak has X-Country meet, La Diva has piano, we have hair cuts for Kodiak and Turtle. I need to get the invitations made for Turtle's birthday party which will be in mid-October because our life is just too crazy right now. The Hero is going to be on TV on Wednesday to promote the Heroes in the Sky event this weekend. We have tons of organizing to do for that weekend. Friday I need to take the crew up to Gramma and Poppa's for the weekend. We will pick them up on Thanksgiving. This way I can dedicate my time to all the things the Hero may need as he orchestrates this big fundraiser and media event.

I'll be so happy when next weekend is over and some of the craziness goes with it. It's no wonder that I chose my latest phone ring tone to be Lenny Kravitz's Where are We Runnin'?

They're Poppin'

The Hero snuck down and caught this clip of Kodiak and Turtle jammin'. Make sure you are not drinking anything and you've just gone potty. ;)

We did it!!!

We survived the first week of back to school.

The biggest challenge for us was my body's revolt against waking at a set early time. I'm the first to admit that I am a night owl and hate waking up in the morning.

Kodiak, La Diva and Iceman started on Tuesday. The Hero escorted Kodiak to the secondary school while I took La Diva and Iceman to elementary. As we walked by the secondary we passed several of Kodiak's classmates so he fell into step with them and didn't really need the Hero there afterall. He has embraced this new adventure with so much excitement. He comes home with exciting tales of his teachers and classes. They have options now and while he was disappointed that he did not get into his top pick of digital imagining he is happy with the rest of them so far. They do options with all the jr. highs in that class so he is with 8s and 9s. The prospect of that was a bit daunting, especially in the phys ed ones where everyone is bigger than our little bear. He proved his place though because he outran all of them in cross country (he lost count and did 2 extra laps). His coach was very impressed and asked him who taught him to run and why did he do 2 extra laps. He said his Dad is a great runner. Which made me giggle because he only started running again since his treadmill Father's Day gift. The Hero can run for 30 minutes on it so that impressed his son. In soccer/touch football option they played soccer, the older teens barely gave our little bear a second glance when the class started but by the end of the class he had their respect with his skill and perserverance. He has scientific experiments as his other option. He comes home for lunch but took a lunch the other day so he could attend the meeting for the trip to Greece. He was disappointed to discover it was only for the sr. highs. I told him he can start working towards the senior high trip now. If they still head to Greece I'll glady chaperone. There is a dance this weekend but he has no interest in attending. I assured him that he'd merely be holding up the walls and making his harem happy that he was there. He told me this morning he'd rather watch a movie tonight so I won't push it. His harem will be phoning and disappointed at his no show.

La Diva was very worked up the week prior to school and that we both survived that week was nothing short of a miracle. She was very stressed out about not having "friends" in her class. I told that was just an opportunity to make new ones and that she is awesome at that. I was shocked she was so full of drama over it as this is the first year in a long while she has not had to adjust to a new school and a new city. She has the same teacher as last year even!! Girls!!! I know the tweens are here, I have to find a way to cope. Nothing a good bottle of vino can't help. So it turns out her friends from last year that are not in her class still play with her and still ring our phone off the hook. She has met at least 1 new friend too. It hasn't been all that horrible afterall.

Iceman was so ready to get back to school. He is such a social being and was getting bored with all of us. As we walked to school we ran into his red headed buddy from last year and discovered they were in the same class. They both had huge grins and then found out their "lockers" (aka cubbies) were next to each other. After I hung all his things in his "locker" and got him organized I asked if he'd like me to stay to which he replied "What for?" which was a much different response than the sobs of the year before. Suck it up Mom and be assured that you made the right choice to keep him in Kindy another year as he is very ready to be in Grade 1. He is a bit disappointed that a "weird" kid is in his class. This kid threatened to kill him and his siblings while walking their dog this summer. He is a bizarre child but we assured Iceman that he would not in fact kill him and that he would probably spend much time out of the class with the resource teachers. When we walk to school in the morning it amazes me how much charisma this child has as he is bumping fists with popular kids in Kodiak's class that are barely friends with him but they all know the Iceman. The girls from Kodiak's harem are always tickling and chasing him in attempts to get a hug. Kodiak said to me the other day that he doesn't know why the girls are all over Ice. Then I enlightened him that it has nothing to do with Ice and everything to do with him. They need to get his attention somehow, his obliviousness to their goo goo eyes makes me laugh.

Turtle had staggered entry day yesterday. I was so worried at how he and I would make out. The Hero had his wisdom teeth removed that morning so he was unable to come with us. I expected tears, clinging on for dear life and physical removal from the classroom. I'm talking about me not the Turtle. He had been anxious the night before and we read The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn. I'll admit that I became rather weepy and nostalgic. I grabbed Kodiak's hand and showed Turtle the kiss I had put there so many years ago. Of course Kodiak hammed it right up rubbing his hand on his face saying "Mommy loves me, Mommy loves me." We saw the kiss on the hands of La Diva and Iceman too. Turtle embraced the tradition and was excited to come home and tell me they had that book at school too. He settled into class the next day with little hesitation. I was very happy that I had decided to go a fair bit early so that he could get some face time with the teacher from the start. He happily said goodbye and I was out the door without a tear. The artwork that he brought home proves that all is well, his traced hand with a heart in it and the words "Turtle came to school on the first day and he felt happy." He has sure come a long way from the barnacle that was stuck to my hind end last year.

The house was so quiet yesterday, the dog was depressed as all her kids were gone and the usual noise of the Hero talking or his crackberry ringing constantly and the typing of the computer was missing. I did a bit of laundry, organized Kodiak's closet and then had to get out as the quiet was too much. The next little while will be filled with long overdue appointments - dentist, chiropractor, hair, etc. After that I will have to figure out what to do to fill my days when all my bunnies are out of the Hutch. The irony..... when they are small you long for days of peace and quiet but once they've left the hutch the quiet is too much to bear and you long for those noisy days again.

Bend it Like Kodiak

This spring/summer we have been all about soccer. All 4 of the kids played but this was truly Kodiak's year to shine. He had an amazing year and learned so many skills. He has always enjoyed playing soccer but this was the year it became a passion. He has bought books on drills and skills, he practices for endless hours with his little brothers, his buddy across the street, his sister or on his own. He has a soccer ball on a sort of bungee teather to help him with his footwork. He pours over his World Cup program (thanks to Auntie Mel), studies his books, watches the stats and takes in as many games as he can.

We had a free subscription to soccer TV on the satellite and when that ran out he offered up his bottle return money if we would add it to the subscription again. LOL - those were slurpees being offered up for the love of the game. We said if he loved it that much he could keep his bottle money as long as he kept up with his chores.

We were really fortunate to have the FIFA U20 games in Canada this year and we travelled into our neighboring city to take almost all of them in. One day Cody, a friend and his sister sat in garbage bags during an unexpected downpour while Dad shivered in the cold alongside them. He said nothing short of lightening was making those kids leave that game.

I imagine that there will be indoor soccer this fall which will be a good extra curricular to keep him busy as he hits Jr. High. As it stands he hopes to improve his skills and to maybe get a scholarship for university from his passion for soccer. He knows that not everyone gets the $140,000.00/day for warming a bench like Beckham.

La Diva at Castle
Castle Mountain
Kodiak at Pass Powderkeg.