Runnin' back to Saskatoon

To be honest, I'm feeling a little bummed out today.  We were supposed to go to Tofield and visit my parents this weekend.  The added bonus to that was my brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl a couple of days ago and we would have been able to see them too.  Why are we still in Saskatoon then?  It started early Friday morning with some retching.  It appears Jorja has a stomach flu.  She threw up a bit Friday morning and didn't feel very good at all.  Given her history with throwing up, we weren't sure if it would just be the once and then she would feel fine, or if she was actually sick.  She had a nap (should have been our first clue she was sick) and then seemed a little perkier after that.  We decided we would still set out, a little later than planned.  We got to Borden and decided to turn around.  She was getting greener and greener and then she ended up with a fever last night and more throwing up during the night.  Not exactly what you want when travelling.  She seems a little better this morning - actually asked to eat something, so we'll see if that sits all right.

I wrote that first paragraph this morning, and it is now evening and since then Julie has succumbed to the same bug Jorja had.  I feel I may not be far behind either.  That's unfortunate.  I really hate throwing up.  Like really hate it.  Kids always seem so resilient - puke one minute, smile the next.  I don't know how they do it.  I guess the long and short of it is that it's a good thing we stayed home this weekend.

We had our first parent-teacher-student three way conference on Thursday.  I guess they don't just have parent-teacher interviews anymore.  It turns our our child is brilliant.  Well, maybe I'm bragging a bit, but she is doing great.  She showed us how to use the 'smart board' (apparently blackboards are out now to) and all the other stuff she can do.  There were several stations that we went through before we got to the teacher where she had little activities to do.  Pretty basic stuff - letters, numbers, shapes, colours.  Just the basic shapes and colours though - it's a wonder she doesn't get bored with some of that stuff.  She wasn't even three yet and she could tell you what a turquoise parallelogram was.  The teacher had no concerns with Jorja either, so that was good.  She was impressed by how much Jorja can read already.  Jorja loves her teacher too.  I think Kindergarten teachers are a special breed of people - how you can be that kind and loving and patient day after day is beyond me.  I had a great Kindergarten teacher and it looks like Jorja will have similar fond memories to look back onto.

I took the youngest two kids to Walmart this afternoon to get a few things.  What was I thinking on Saturday afternoon?  It was a zoo in there.  Ginny was remarkably well behaved though and we survived relatively unscathed.  I left Jorja home to look after Julie, a task which she took to heart.  Jorja was on the upswing this afternoon, so she felt confident in that role.  She is quite the little mother hen that one.  It breaks her heart when someone else in the family isn't feeling well.  She really mother Ginny when she doesn't feel well.

I guess we will be home for the Rider game tomorrow, instead of on the road like the last game.  I can get the girls to watch it on TV, but listening to it on the radio is a bit of a stretch.  Jorja and Ginny are taking quite the interest in the Roughriders this year, well as much interest as they can manage for something that isn't animated with catchy music.  At least they don't ask to turn it off.   

Work is going good, but I'm back to the day shift this week, so we'll see how everyone else fares.  Hopefully alright.  Later.

Cantaloupe

This afternoon we dropped Jorja off at school and the rest of us went to Walmart. We needed a few groceries and it was a toss up between that and Superstore. Walmart has Dairyland yogurt, so we went there. We picked up some fruit too, including a cantaloupe. The clerk got to the cantaloupe and then proceeded to look up the code for that. They have this sort of roller at eye level with all their codes on it. I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent here...They need to look up the code for a cantaloupe? When my sister was going to university, she worked as a cashier at Superstore. After she was hired, she came home with a big binder of produce codes that she had to memorize. She could recognize and tell me the code for vegetables that I didn't even know existed at that time - bok choy, leeks, okra - you name it, she knew the code. And she was fast. At Superstore, you were expected to ring through so many groceries per minute. I don't think Walmart has ever heard of this concept. Not only are there never enough tills open at Walmart, they are all slow. At least at Superstore, there are almost always enough tills open and the cashiers are fast. Anyway, enough of my rant. Back to today. I'm watching the cashier look up the code for cantaloupe, and she's not even looking under the C. What does she think this is? Then she rings it through as a honeydew melon. So I corrected her - cantaloupes were 50 cents cheaper (I'm still Mennonite). But this brings me to another question. Who in their 40's doesn't know what a cantaloupe is? It's not like this woman was a teenager. Oh well, we got the cantaloupe at the cantaloupe price, and all was well. Later.

Soccer shoes

After preschool today, we went to Walmart to get some new runners for Jorja. Soccer starts tomorrow, and she doesn't have any. We had decided that it didn't really pay to buy cleats, so we were just going to get her some regular runners. I tried on some brand name ones that were in the $20 range, but they didn't have velcro or laces, just kind of an elasticized tongue. They were next to impossible to get on over her soccer socks. And I'm not about to get her anything with laces - that's just too much work. So I found a pair of no name velcro ones for $8. I'm not opposed to spending more money - if I really believed the shoes would make any difference in her soccer-playing ability, I would buy them. But the $8 ones fit good, and I asked her if they were good enough. She looked at me, looked at the shoes and said, "Yup, they have pink on them." Enough said.

We also had to pick up some new plastic pails for playing in the dirt in the backyard. On the weekend, we were playing soccer, when I inadvertently stepped on the 'carebear' one. It spent all last summer outside, the winter in the shed, and most of the spring outside. The plastic was so brittle, it basically exploded under my foot. Well, I thought the world was going to end. Jorja cried...and cried...and cried. Even upon my insisting that we would get new pails, she said thinking about the carebear one still made her sad. I even said we would get two pails - one for each of them - to replace this one sacred pail. Finally she agreed. So today we walk into Walmart, and they have lots of summer stuff in a section right by the front doors. I walk down the aisle without pointing anything out, and see some princess pails for $4.93 each. I couldn't believe it was going to cost me ten bucks to replace this brittle, old pail. So we walked to the toy section, and I ended up spotting some for a buck. And they had pink, so all was well.

CeCe had been kind of fussy, so Julie stayed home with her. Lately, when I go somewhere with just the two girls, they insist in driving the red car. We went to get propane for the BBQ on Saturday, and Jorja said, "Yeah, this car is better. It has more power."

Ginny spent the whole car ride today singing 'Cecilia, you're shakin' my heart'. She gets the lyrics a bit mixed up, but she was right into it. She would close her eyes, tilt her head back, and just belt it out.

I went to work this afternoon by myself for coffee. It was great to see everyone and have an outing on my own. I love my kids, but it was a nice break.

I think that was about it for today. Later.