Well, hello! It's been weeks and weeks since I have been in touch. Sorry I have been so remiss at jotting down my scatty thoughts. A great deal has been happening - moving here hasn't been the smoothest process. This might be a fairly lengthy post as I need to fill you in on four weeks! I haven't any photos for this time as we are away on hols and the photos are stored back at home, but I shall stick on some good ones for the next entry.
Lizzie and Lexi were pretty settled in school by the time we were "Marched In" to our new house on 16th September. It was a far more lengthy progress than I remembered and I think the first time we had been able to do it without the girls. It was a good way to do it! The house is of a super size and we feel very blessed to have it. We have landed on our feet this time! The two main high points for me are that there is a really large open fireplace and a fab basement. We managed to organise that our boxes of stuff arrived later the same day (quite a feat!) so by Wednesday afternoon, when the girls came home to see inside the house for the first time, we were all feeling pretty happy - although climbing amongst or over the boxes and tripping over the excited tearing out of children's belongings was how we were getting about! I managed to locate the box in which were all my curtains - always of major import to me - getting rid of the Army drapes and putting up our own kick starts the feeling at home process.
I have taken a video of the house as it was when we arrived so that when I am totally finished, you can see the before and after. I shall post it when we return home so you can have a guided tour of the house.
Now a free bit of entertainment for you.........when we arrived here, both Richard and I decided to take up ice hockey. There is an ice arena here and lots of people here do enter into the sport mainly as a way of getting fit, and it's the main way of socialising. In the Winter here, there's not an awful lot to do, so I was pretty fired up about it. Now, I know most of you reading this know about my awful slippy, slidey, formerly dislocating bones and it may well seem like a completo bonkers idea to enter into such a sport. You're right. I made the decision on the plane coming over here, however, that I was going to do this, no matter what. Getting fit has always been the way to improve my jingly jangly achy body, so ice hockey inspired me (I know a Davina exercise DVD at home might have been more the thing, but I don't like to do things by halves.......).
The first step toward getting on the wives team was a week of intensive skate school. A while later is then a week of Ice Hockey School. I was unable to make it to the first week because of being in hospital with Harry, so the only way for me to catch up was to join one of the chaps' teams for their skate school (coincidentally ended up being the "Flyers" team, therefore Richard was on it - nothing like a bit of healthy competition to spur me on!). So on the ice were lots of big blokes all in their hockey gear (think: top half American Baseball, bottom half Sumo wrestler) and then me. No, not in the least intimidating. I was pleased to discover however, (oh just see how charitable I am now....) that quite a few of the blokes were perfectly hopeless, which was a huge mental help to me and made me press on. It was hard keeping up with them mainly just because they have a longer stride. Again, though, that made me try even harder! All was going well, I was enjoying myself, although the 20-25 minutes it takes to get the kit on was a bit of a bore, but I was looking forward to each session . I managed to persuade Richard to come home at lunchtimes so I could go to the public skating sessions at lunch times ready for the next night's lesson.
One particular lunch time session I did managed to provide some most brilliant in house entertainment for quite a lot of people. I was getting on pretty well with my corners and speed so decided to take it up a level, but instead of sticking to the all important slight squatting position needed for safety when getting up some speed, I just didn't think, straightened up (which I quickly found out I was not good enough for yet!) and did a superb cartoon style slip up. I saw my skates come up in front of my eyes as my head went backwards smacking on the ice just after my coccyx. Wonderfully stylish, I know. I was winded pretty badly and when able to wanted to burst into tears! As you know though, that would not be an option I could ever take, so two friends came over to help me up (yup, I couldn't even get up by myself, how much of an exhibitionist does one need to be?!). I could feel straight away that something was wrong immediately and several days later, still continuing with the skating, I have to say, but needing lots of pain killers to get through the sessions. The med centre thought I had probably fractured my coccyx. This sounded entirely possible to me, just because of the pain levels, but there's nothing that can really be done for that condition, and I didn't want to travel miles to hospital so just decided to let it mend in its own time. Several days later though, the skating was so painful I had to give it up. I WAS SO CROSS. SO CROSS. I was loving it and actually, it seemed I had a thing for skating and was ok at it. So, no more Ice Hockey training for me. Richard, however, still kits up and goes off to play, which, I'm afraid does bring out a little of the green eyed monster in me! I shall get some photos next time he goes off and stick them on here.
So suddenly I had a lot more time on my hands and turned my thoughts to unpacking the removals boxes. Quite a daunting task, but exciting nonetheless. I had got into the second day of unpacking, which really just meant getting the boxes in the right rooms, when I received a 'phone call from my sister, telling me that our beloved grand father had died a few moments before. He was the most super man. The absolute best Grandfather any person could have and a top, top role model. My family and my grandparents have lived side by side in two halves of the same house for years, so we were all totally involved in each other's lives. It's a big blow to all of us and our cousins. I called my sister the next day to see how everyone was, and for various reasons the funeral was almost immediate, so within half an hour I was somehow on Army transport to Calgary Airport (hours away) and nabbed the last seat on a flight home. Richard, meanwhile got a crash course in looking after three children and their various activities (in a house with not much at all unpacked!). It was all a bit of a whirlwind and I haven't travelled by myself for years, let alone a transatlantic flight - I'm quite surprised I got there!
Lizzie and Lexi were pretty settled in school by the time we were "Marched In" to our new house on 16th September. It was a far more lengthy progress than I remembered and I think the first time we had been able to do it without the girls. It was a good way to do it! The house is of a super size and we feel very blessed to have it. We have landed on our feet this time! The two main high points for me are that there is a really large open fireplace and a fab basement. We managed to organise that our boxes of stuff arrived later the same day (quite a feat!) so by Wednesday afternoon, when the girls came home to see inside the house for the first time, we were all feeling pretty happy - although climbing amongst or over the boxes and tripping over the excited tearing out of children's belongings was how we were getting about! I managed to locate the box in which were all my curtains - always of major import to me - getting rid of the Army drapes and putting up our own kick starts the feeling at home process.
I have taken a video of the house as it was when we arrived so that when I am totally finished, you can see the before and after. I shall post it when we return home so you can have a guided tour of the house.
Now a free bit of entertainment for you.........when we arrived here, both Richard and I decided to take up ice hockey. There is an ice arena here and lots of people here do enter into the sport mainly as a way of getting fit, and it's the main way of socialising. In the Winter here, there's not an awful lot to do, so I was pretty fired up about it. Now, I know most of you reading this know about my awful slippy, slidey, formerly dislocating bones and it may well seem like a completo bonkers idea to enter into such a sport. You're right. I made the decision on the plane coming over here, however, that I was going to do this, no matter what. Getting fit has always been the way to improve my jingly jangly achy body, so ice hockey inspired me (I know a Davina exercise DVD at home might have been more the thing, but I don't like to do things by halves.......).
The first step toward getting on the wives team was a week of intensive skate school. A while later is then a week of Ice Hockey School. I was unable to make it to the first week because of being in hospital with Harry, so the only way for me to catch up was to join one of the chaps' teams for their skate school (coincidentally ended up being the "Flyers" team, therefore Richard was on it - nothing like a bit of healthy competition to spur me on!). So on the ice were lots of big blokes all in their hockey gear (think: top half American Baseball, bottom half Sumo wrestler) and then me. No, not in the least intimidating. I was pleased to discover however, (oh just see how charitable I am now....) that quite a few of the blokes were perfectly hopeless, which was a huge mental help to me and made me press on. It was hard keeping up with them mainly just because they have a longer stride. Again, though, that made me try even harder! All was going well, I was enjoying myself, although the 20-25 minutes it takes to get the kit on was a bit of a bore, but I was looking forward to each session . I managed to persuade Richard to come home at lunchtimes so I could go to the public skating sessions at lunch times ready for the next night's lesson.
One particular lunch time session I did managed to provide some most brilliant in house entertainment for quite a lot of people. I was getting on pretty well with my corners and speed so decided to take it up a level, but instead of sticking to the all important slight squatting position needed for safety when getting up some speed, I just didn't think, straightened up (which I quickly found out I was not good enough for yet!) and did a superb cartoon style slip up. I saw my skates come up in front of my eyes as my head went backwards smacking on the ice just after my coccyx. Wonderfully stylish, I know. I was winded pretty badly and when able to wanted to burst into tears! As you know though, that would not be an option I could ever take, so two friends came over to help me up (yup, I couldn't even get up by myself, how much of an exhibitionist does one need to be?!). I could feel straight away that something was wrong immediately and several days later, still continuing with the skating, I have to say, but needing lots of pain killers to get through the sessions. The med centre thought I had probably fractured my coccyx. This sounded entirely possible to me, just because of the pain levels, but there's nothing that can really be done for that condition, and I didn't want to travel miles to hospital so just decided to let it mend in its own time. Several days later though, the skating was so painful I had to give it up. I WAS SO CROSS. SO CROSS. I was loving it and actually, it seemed I had a thing for skating and was ok at it. So, no more Ice Hockey training for me. Richard, however, still kits up and goes off to play, which, I'm afraid does bring out a little of the green eyed monster in me! I shall get some photos next time he goes off and stick them on here.
So suddenly I had a lot more time on my hands and turned my thoughts to unpacking the removals boxes. Quite a daunting task, but exciting nonetheless. I had got into the second day of unpacking, which really just meant getting the boxes in the right rooms, when I received a 'phone call from my sister, telling me that our beloved grand father had died a few moments before. He was the most super man. The absolute best Grandfather any person could have and a top, top role model. My family and my grandparents have lived side by side in two halves of the same house for years, so we were all totally involved in each other's lives. It's a big blow to all of us and our cousins. I called my sister the next day to see how everyone was, and for various reasons the funeral was almost immediate, so within half an hour I was somehow on Army transport to Calgary Airport (hours away) and nabbed the last seat on a flight home. Richard, meanwhile got a crash course in looking after three children and their various activities (in a house with not much at all unpacked!). It was all a bit of a whirlwind and I haven't travelled by myself for years, let alone a transatlantic flight - I'm quite surprised I got there!
When I returned, everyone was still in one piece, a fair amount of pulling stuff out of boxes had taken place (deep joy), large “helpful” piles of things for me to go through were in most rooms (!) but all three sprogs were happy, well fed, in school on time each day, Harry had been enrolled into Pre School (so Richard could still go to work for a few hours in the day), 3 daily lunch boxes done, no swimming lessons missed, youth club attended etc etc and.....Richard taught Lexi to ride her bike! The best thing of all, Harry was hugely better.I left Canada on a Tuesday and returned on the Sunday a few days later. When I left, Harry was still trying to make up for lost time with his speech since being in hospital. He was just a little bit skinny although nearly back to normal, but his speech was still not that good. He has always been a very good chatterer. Long words, strangely adult sentences in the right context and most able to stand up for himself amongst the girls. When he came out of hospital, he was exceedingly moody, wore a constant heavy frown and mostly spoke in single words. When I left for England, he had improved masses, but was not normal yet, so leaving him wasn't easy. On my return to Calgary at the airport, a loud voice greeted me with "hello Mummy, I thought I just saw you coming out of the lift!". That was the best welcome I could have had. It was a long, lonely journey coming away from my family in England - but to arrive and hear my boy speaking normally again was just brilliant. I was overjoyed.
Whilst in England, it was 2 weeks since my superb slip up on the ice and my coccyx was getting to be a bit of a pest, so I took up an appointment my sister had recently cancelled with her osteopath. She immediately said that I had slipped a disc and weirdly and wonderfully, she somehow managed to put everything right. I didn't even know that was possible! She strapped me up for the 10 hour flight home (don't know why it was that long, it was only 9 on the way to England - something to do with the jet stream or something.....) and I can definitely say though, I felt great pretty quickly and have done ever since!
Frustratingly, I am too late to join in with the Ice Hockey now (yup, I hear you - probably a daft thing to do anyway and Richard has practically forbidden me!).
Right, I shall sign off there. I have brought you half way up to date to the present day and shall continue in a couple of days – next time with photos. x
So lovely to hear all your news. Thank you. House looks great, Kitty managed to learn to ride her bike at the end of the holidays - Hooray!
ReplyDeleteSee you had written some bits I didn't know. You forgot to say it was a slipped disc, so glad I read it!! Also about Harrys speech. Think we must just spend too much time talking about chocolate!! Lots luv. xxx
ReplyDelete