Nov. 6

It's been and up and down week! Catherine phoned in tears yesterday, and I felt I should go back, especially when I spoke to her again yesterday afternoon and she was still crying. I would have to miss Sheralyn and Jack coming and several teaching gigs but I was ready to go. Then she called early this morning to say that she slept last night and she is much better - no need for me to go. However, I will go to her shower on the 18th, or at least that is the hope. I will order tonight. Heather's birthday today and at least we got a couple of Facebook messages from her. I sent her good wishes and her birthday money. She is in Nelson tonight and says she will be closer to home next week and will see us then. Alex put out some feelers today. We had a long talk about how to work out this situation of him being home. Expectations, etc. I think we needed to clear the air. I'm glad he got out there and really hope he gets something soon! I know he wants to move out and we are so ready for him to do that. It's election day and we are watching the votes come in. It is very close! We hope Obama gets in, of course, but it is so close that there will be problems running the country. We are going to the cabin on Thursday, and since I work tomorrow, I got busy today and made tuna casserole and sweet&sour chicken so that there won't be a lot of cooking to do. I also made a pizza (very good) and some sausage rolls with the extra dough/sausages. Little Ava's stocking is looking good. It's important to do a good job because she will probably use it for her whole life, at least I hope she will. Maybe she will just decide to get her own stocking when she's bigger. I still have mine! Anyway, I am missing Heather and wishing we could be together. Have a great birthday and a wonderful 29th year!

Nov. 4

We "fell back" last night and I am sort of out of it. I woke up at 6:00 as usual, but it was only 5:00 because of the time change. I worked on Ava's stocking, which is coming along nicely. Then I went downtown and started Christmas shopping, always a good picker-upper. To top it off we went for dinner at the White Spot to celebrate Alex's finishing his welding. I think things are healing- but he couldn't wait to get out of there to go and see his friends, and he was texting most of the time! We watched "The Avengers" last night and I barely made it through without going to sleep. Wish me luck tonight as I try to watch "The Mentalist" and "Call the Midwife!"

November 3

A rainy Saturday - not my favourite day ever, but lots to be thankful for. Catherine phoned last night and she is doing much better. She slept last night. I think little Ava is turning a corner. Also, Alex phoned to say he has got his welding ticket. He seems to be feeling pretty good about himself right now. I started Catherine's stocking, with the idea of a bird design. I visited John's mom earlier. She was quite confused but liked the sweater I got her. I haven't heard from Heather in over a month:{

All systems go

Catherine is still having a struggle with little Ava. Poor thing. The good news is that John's colonoscopy was clean. Yay! Alex is home.

October is almost over - and I'm glad

It has been a month of huge change, ups an downs. Catherine has had her little baby girl, and she is beautiful. Ava is a very healthy little girl, and I was lucky to be there to meet her just about an hour after she was born. I spent ten days with her, and John came for the last six days. It was a very intense time, full of changes, especially for Catherine and Paul. Catherine ended up having a hard time with breastfeeding, and with all the lack of sleep and hormonal changes, she went a little over the edge at times. It is hard to see that happen, and even though I know it will pass, I am sometimes worried about Catherine, who feels things to intensely. She has been so inside herself and it's hard for her to get out of the house. Paul is back to work today, so this will be the "real world" as she says. Paul's family left yesterday, so it will be her first time alone during the day. She may find that she can get in to the rhythm of life with a baby now. Once we get used to it, us moms tend to manage well. I hope Catherine will find this out too. We saw Jackson and his parents a few times too. Jackson is so cute and funny. We are looking forward to seeing him soon so that his parents can go down to Berkeley to find a place for them to live. This weekend was horrible. Alex ended up putting his car into a ditch. He had had a couple of beers a few hours earlier and even though he was not over the limit, the car was impounded. What a perfect storm of unhappiness! The reason he sped off late Friday night is because Sharah was not speaking to him and he wanted to see her. He told his dad this, and then went out. When John got the call to help Alex out, he went right down, and Sharah was there too. I wasn't there but it seems like the two of them really had it out. Both have very quick tempers. Alex is so upset with his dad that he has temporarily moved out. He came home yesterday to tell us that he loves us but still can't come home. He and Sharah had just ended things about half an hour earlier. There were lots of tears on Friday and I am worried about Alex's state of mind. I am going to try to find a counselor for all of us. Added to that, we didn't hear from Catherine all weekend. She had phoned on Friday, and there were tears and she was mad at her dad for giving Ava a cold - not a good way to end a conversation but I had to go to work. We heard that Heather had visited Catherine and Ava too - but she hasn't been in touch either. I feel isolated and right now I don't seem to have a lot of enthusiasm for anything. I guess that is understandable. To end this up and down month, John is going in for a colonoscopy tomorrow. He has to stop eating at noon and then take horrible stuff that will make him clear out his bowels in a very dramatic way. In a couple of days we should have a resolution to all of this. I hope and pray that the doctor will find nothing. I am going to work this morning. That is one thing I think I can still do, and I like being with the people at Deep Cove, staff and kids. It's raining again!!

baby!

Catherine is in the hospital! She is going to be induced, and I am quite a mess. I missed my teaching job today because I got mixed up and thought I was booked for the p.m. It is horrible but I am putting it down to sympathetic pre-labour brain! I am booked for the 7:00 flight tomorrow. We are going out for dinner tonight at the Bengal Room. Isn't that weird?

October 8 2012

It's a lovely Thanksgiving Monday morning. The weather continues to be spectacular, with 20 degrees yesterday! I went for a run yesterday morning, got some pumpkin soup made (there are still about 12 bags of frozen pumpkin from last year in the freezer!) then went in to Victoria to see "Red" at the Belfry. It was excellent, as most plays there are. I don't know why I nodded off for a few minutes. I guess it was dark and comfy. I saw Lloy from book club, who I haven't seen in years. I didn't recognize her at first since she has had a nose job! I think she had a lift too. She does look good. Her nose was just too long! We had errands to run of course, before and after, then came home and had a steak dinner. Not too Thanksgiving-y but we will have the dinner tonight, with Alex, Sharah and Margaret. I am missing the other kids and their spouses and Jackson like crazy but we just have to roll with it.Catherine will probably be phoning soon and I will be off to Calgary! I want to get a good bike ride in today, and other than that, it will just be relaxing and cooking!