august days

These last weeks have been a non stop roller coaster of activity and I've hardly had time to sit nevermind write about it. I desperately want to capture these days so I can look back and remember what our lives were like. We went to Great Woods Music (still in my mind Blues) Fest. Broke from the routine so after bath and pjs and nursing I put Jude in the sling and we went back outside. It took a while for him to relax and understand that things were different but then he went with it. We went back to the pounding music of the festival and within minutes he cuddled down and went to sleep, on the grass, the blues only slightly muffled by the chairs around us. I was certain he would awaken during the fireworks but no! With my son on one side and my dad on the other I lay back and watched the sky explode over us. I have loved fireworks since I was wee... At 11 we went to Montreal during the summer and watched the international fireworks competition that takes place there each summer. We lay under the bridge across from La Ronde on the banks of the Fleuve St-Laurent and watched hours of fireworks displays, each Saturday a different country competing. Last year the display from Winnipeg's ArcAngel Fireworks won! How exciting! When I was 16, no longer living at home but staying with a friend in Osborne Village, Winnipeg hosted the PanAm Games. Every night for two weeks there were fireworks at the Forks and every night for two weeks I walked from our apartment down across the footbridge to take my place and watch. Some nights I brought a group, some nights I was alone but I can't recall missing even a night. Something about fireworks reaches into my heart and brings all the emotions out. I couldn't miss that.

We've visited with friends. At Melissa's last week Jude was more interested in running around the yard discovering new things than playing in the pool. We called him back but he simply lifted his arm and waved bye-bye as he ran off! We've played in parks and at friend's houses and in the yard and in our house. The heat wave finally broke and last time I came home it was so cold it felt like fall. Only a high of 12 degrees for three days!!! We had long pants and shirts on, the air conditioning got turned off and I began preparing for the inevitable return of fall. But not yet! We still have a few weeks to enjoy the heat of summer, the sting of mosquitoes, etc etc etc

Last time I was in Toronto I had a fantastic layover that included lunch at Pi-Tom's with Celindy, watching a Chinese adult student literally frolic in a water pool (where was my camera?!? AGAIN!! I really really have to get on this, it's ridiculous the moments I miss not having one on me) and spent over an hour wandering the city with a Cuban who I had just met. And who thought I was the most amazing person in the world just for being myself. What a great day! I was totally rejuvenated to come back on the train as ASC in charge of 300 coach passengers, including 175 sixteen year-old students. Oh joy. Surprisingly they were great kids and the trip back was infinitely better than the trip going, in which I only had 75 passengers spread amongst three coaches and I spent the entire trip dreading the return and being angry at my crew. Your mindset can really affect so much and I mostly blame myself for having such a crappy, angry trip down.

The newest news? Twofold. I cut my hair, again. Had a bird etched into the side and a sick cut that looks amazing. Once Chris learns to take a better picture of me I will add one! And I'm preparing for my first nude photoshoot with Cherrystems. I decided to theme it books/librarian and we've got the used book store Aqua to let us shoot there. I'm so psyched, doubly so that my good friend Christel has agreed to shoot it and my just as good friend Julie *might* stop by too! It'll be such fun with a good group of girls and it's happening too fast for me to get nervous about it. Too many things yet to get done so I can't start stressing out about it.

Oh, these days will be over too soon and not soon enough. I am anxious for my layoff and to spend all my days at home caring for my boys and working on my own projects. Yet when that happens my smallest boy will be even bigger and I don't want that yet! He brings us books to read him all the time. And he smacks his lips making fish sounds when he's happy, mainly when both mama and papa are around. And he tries to help by sweeping the floor or throwing out the garbage (and also not the garbage) and putting groceries in the cart. And he's so strong today he pushed the entire grocery cart full of groceries by himself!!! Oh my, what an adventure we are having and he is growing so quickly. Til next time.