dog days.....

Well.

It has been quite a day and a half.
Mike and Ian planned some time ago to take all our assorted children to West Edmonton Mall.
Minus me of course.
Which suits me fine as I am not really a huge fan of the place.
But of course, this arrangement resulted in the assumption I would care for Mike’s Jack Russell Terror, Jake. And no, that is not a typo.

Now, first of all, as Mike and I share custody of our nearly grown boys and they live with him three days per week, he gave me a key to the house so if ever they needed to get in I could open the door.
However, he recently had to change his locks, and in doing so, entrusted the key he had cut for me to my darling 18-year-old Justin.
Justin promptly lost said key.
But thinking he knew where it was, we didn’t bother to tell Mike so as to avoid the whole lecture about not losing keys.
So here is a brief point form outline of my last 48 hours:

Sunday afternoon: Mike leaves, I head to his house and let dog out. On my way out I lock the door.

Sunday evening: I go to let dog out for last pee, realize I have no key, say several bad words, and climb in through side window, incurring several scrapes on the way in.
I say more bad words. And lock door on way out.

Monday morning: I realize I must let dog out again. But again face a locked door. I consider having myself checked for Alzheimer's. One kid goes with me and I send him through the window. Younger children take bus to school.
I let dog out, collect items for trip to Edmonton for youngest son, and take oldest son to school… this time leaving the door unlocked.

Monday afternoon: make frenzied trip to get tires balanced before weekend conference, renew my car insurance which ran out 10 days previous (oops) and run around doing various chores before deciding dog should just come home with me for the next two days instead of being all alone. Head to house, collect dog and dog food, walk out door and lock it. Realize I left daughter’s Ipod inside. Immediately realize my error in locking door. More bad words.

Take dog to my house, walk in, take him off leash.
Dog sees cat. Cat sees dog. Much insanity ensues. Did not realize cat could fly. Did not realize I should get out of the way.
Cat finds hiding place, dog is quivering with excitement regarding cat, I wash much blood from wounds on both arms incurred in cat meeting dog incident.

More badder words.

Find cat, put him in my room with door closed and all necessities. Find dog. Discuss finer points of interspecies manners and pecking order. Cat was here first.

Go pick kids up from school. Break into house for a third time and ponder the legalities of actions.

Get stuff. Make sure we have all stuff. Triple check that we have all stuff. Go back for dog bed. Lock door.

Kids and men leave.

Monday evening: make dinner, write, watch some tv. Ensure cat/dog segregation complete. Go to bed.

Dog whines.

Dog cries.

Dog gets into garbage.

I sigh.

Pat the cat on head and take blanket and pillow downstairs to sleep on couch to shut dog up… but clean up garbage on kitchen floor first. Have serious discussion with dog about interspecies manners again.

Lie down on couch. Dog leaps up and lies down on me.

I sigh.

Dog is happy.

Dog sleeps.

I do not.

And that concludes today’s episode of Adventures in Dog Sitting. Stay tuned. The little runt is here for another night.

Happy Birthday Scotty

Dear Scott

I turned around ever so briefly when you were a boy, and when I turned back, you were man.
When did it happen?
My sweet baby boy, who was never cross and always smiled, will turn 15 tomorrow… no longer a baby, and still rarely cross! Lol!

When you were very small, and I was far away and my heart was so heavy, you told me on the phone “oh mommy, the sun is still shining, the clouds are just in the way.”
Such wisdom for someone so small… I carry that in my heart every day.

I remember when you were borne there was some damage from the forceps, and the doctors said you would never totally open your one eye. But every day I would stroke that side of your face, and you would smile your sweet crooked little smile, and every day it got straighter, and you proved them all wrong.

Your big brother so adored you… and would pick you up any chance he got. That bond has never waivered.
Justin has always been the other half of your team. What more could a mother ask than that?
The two of you have always had such a connection… never even apart for more than a couple of days until you were nine. And even then you said, “that was too long… I don’t want to be away from Justin that long again.”
Of course, you have managed to do just that many times since! But it does my heart good to know the two of you are still so close. And you are both such amazing, gracious, good men. I am as proud as I could ever be.
Of course, there is the more nerve wracking aspect to that kinship… like the plans for Justin to design planes that you would test fly. But he made it into the sky ahead of you, and of course this summer you want to follow.

When Hayley was stung by a bee in the yard at Carriage Court Apartments, it was you that put your arm around her shoulders and led her steadily up the stairs, holding her stung hand gently in yours.
Already you were taking care of people. So kind and such a gentleman. We watched from the balcony where Justin had rushed ahead to tell us.
You were four, and she just three and a half.

When you fell out of a tree and broke your arm that same summer, you cried and clung to me with the other arm when the bone was reset. But then when that beastly, arrogant doctor asked if you were going to climb trees again, you sat up straight, looked him right in the eye and said, “Yup, I just aren’t going to fall out again.”
Showed him. You’ve climbed everything in sight ever since. No wonder your Aunt Daphne called you Monkey Boy-Boy and forgot your real name for a year.

You treat your elders with respect, you hold the door open for everyone, not just ladies, you shake hands firmly and with confidence, and I know how hard that can be when you are feeling shy.

Every day I watch you venture further into the adult world, and I know somewhere along the line I did something right with you… and I smile.

And now, here you are. My Scooter, my baby boy no more.
Happy birthday my darling.
I love you to the moon… and back.

And that is far… very, very far.

Xo
Mom

Of spring moments and time....

The birds call and answer, the wetlands alive with their song of spring and renewal. This place, this very special place, is home to dozens of species, including the osprey, common merganse, northern harrier, Cooper’s, rough-legged, sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks, merlins, peregrine falcons, bald and golden eagles, sandhill cranes, sandpipers, gulls of all varieties, terns, owls, doves, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, swallows and corvids of all kinds, wrens, bluebirds, thrushes and warblers, purple finches and red crossbills, red winged black birds, Canada geese, ducks of all variety… the list goes on.
I sit and listen to them, wishing I knew what they were communicating to one another. The first mosquito of the year buzzes past, giddy and fat with the blood of its first victim.
It is well and truly here: spring.
Soon the wetlands will swell, pregnant with the glacial waters flowing from the mountains surrounding us.
Endless abundance of life will be borne, surround and infuse us with the knowledge that the greater strength lies in the natural world around us, a power and beauty we could never hope to match in anything less than abject adoration of it.
While the natural world gears up for activity and the toil of new life and love, it is incumbent upon us to take pause and allow for the wonder if it all. To slow down, even for a moment, and take it all in…
I have written similar sentiment before, and some of you may remember from columns years past. But it bears reminding, for myself as much as anyone, to slow down, be patient, and take care to not take for granted the gifts this life has bestowed upon me.
And gifts I have had aplenty, four that come to mind first, and I know there will more that will enter into my life when the time is right. I hear the whisper in the breeze flowing through those tall grasses just across the yard, calling to me to reach deep within myself and embrace the positive, hold it close and let it infuse me.
A friend of mine sent me a quote that has fast become one of my favourites, and it goes like this:
"Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."
-- Edward Abbey
Hear hear.

My campers!

An amazing weekend... and truly there has been formed a heck of a cup winning team!
My youth empowerment camp, River of Change 2, was this past weekend, and Sunjay Nath, Joe Quercia and I are a heck of a team, I must say. Really looking forward to working with these two again for the 2009 River of Change and with Joe this fall on a wilderness survival camp.
Here are a couple of shots, one of the whole group and one of the three of us: left to right, Joe, me, Sunjay.
I am off to make my much belated rounds to your blogs! I have been most negligent!
xxx
Stevie

Kidnapped! Finale: Emily is found.

Kidnapped! Part 6: we made it to the ground....

Kidnapped! Part 5: Flight of the Valkries....

Kidnapped! Part 4: We are never landing....

Kidnapped! Part 3: Sadly, we could not sit with Emily....

Kidnapped! Part 2: Update on the Canadian Shield fly by....

Kidnapped! Part 1: help help help!!!!!!!